There won’t be any Gears 5 loot boxes, although that’s not to say that the game won’t have any microtransactions at all. The Coalition recently got to talking about the monetization model of the next game in the Gears of War franchise and they made a point of saying just how important it was for them to avoid putting loot boxes into the game at all.
“We really think we’re ahead of the industry here in getting rid of loot boxes and making sure that we can both service people that are looking to accelerate their progression or earn cosmetics using money but also keeping the integrity of the game experience,” The Coalition’s Ryan Cleven said to GamesIndustry.biz.
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Elaborating further, Mr. Cleven said that there will be a measure of microtransactions in the game, although there definitely won’t be any Gears 5 loot boxes. Players can unlock customizations through the “Tour of Duty” system and the “Supply” system will give out free content as players rack up time in the game. So far, the only extra that you can explicitly purchase with money will be the heroes, although these too will be unlockable through normal gameplay somehow.
“We just felt that [loot boxes] weren’t a good fit for [Gears 5] and we wanted to be ahead of the curve looking for possible solutions, even before all the controversy.”
Gears 5 loot boxes could have potentially drawn in a lot of profit for The Coalition despite some of the risks it may have carried. While many governments are investigating the issue (and a handful have already restricted or banned the practice in some fashion), the vast majority have not enacted any laws that would have explicitly banned the use of loot boxes.
Whether it was a calculated avoidance of risk or a principled statement, fans will happy to hear that there won’t be any Gears 5 loot boxes. Hopefully, this next game from The Coalition will serve as an example for other developers as a game that can make a profit without resorting to Skinner Boxes.
