EA is Addressing the Loot Boxes in 'Need for Speed: Payback,' too

DooKey

DooKey

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I think that Disney smacked down EA for being too greedy and reflecting poorly on Star Wars. As a result, not only are they addressing their crappy loot box system in Star Wars Battlefront 2, they're addressing the same thing in Need for Speed: Payback as well. I'm not usually a big Disney fan, but I'm going to have to say I hope they slapped EA around. It's time for loot boxes to go the way of the dodo.

Specifically, Ghost is paring the time it takes for upgrade parts to appear in tune-up shops by 66 percent. What used to take 30 minutes will only take 10 from here on out. Money and reputation from winning events is getting bumped too, and that goes for non-first-place finishes too.
 
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Cool. I by no means trust EA to self-manage this stuff from here on, and think they'll begin ratcheting up the grinding if the bad press just moves on. So, I hope there will be legislation made against those types of practices, to make sure they stay gone.

And I heard that NFS Payback was an arduous grind, and overall not very fun. Too bad, since I've been hoping for another great NFS experience for oh so long.
 


Long watch but he makes all the best points. TL;DR Loot boxes make up almost 50% of EA's revenue and climbing. When loot boxes are officially recognized as gambling EA is going to have a huge problem with their investors.
 
Loot boxes on 60$ games... I been out of serious gaming a long while I guess... I probably would lose my shit completely if I paid 60$ for a game to then be offered micro-transactions or loot boxes.
 
I'm done with action games that require grinding to advance.

I like to play games where MY SKILL is the determining factor in how the game comes out; good luck finding one of those since gamespy went down.

Cheats, built in wallhacks, instagib-type weapons in non instagib games; all that kind of BS just killed the gaming industry for me.

They will add all this crap back in as soon as they can buy a judge to say so.
 
Uvaman2 said:
Loot boxes on 60$ games... I been out of serious gaming a long while I guess... I probably would lose my shit completely if I paid 60$ for a game to then be offered micro-transactions or loot boxes.
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Lol, it's gone so far beyond loot boxes simply being in the games. The gameplay of Battlefront 2 and NFS Payback were actually designed around making progression utterly painful and basically futile for people not spending large money on loot boxes. Darth Vader was locked behind a 40-hour grindfest - and that's with a person doing nothing but grinding for 40 hours to unlock Darth Vader as a playable hero in BF2.
 
Montu said:
I'm starting to think that the smack down Disney placed on EA is a really good thing. Not only are they addressing their crappy loot box system in Star Wars Battlefront 2, they're addressing the same thing in Need for Speed: Payback as well. I'm not usually a big Disney fan, but I'm going to have to say I'm glad they slapped EA around. It's time for loot boxes to go the way of the dodo.

Specifically, Ghost is paring the time it takes for upgrade parts to appear in tune-up shops by 66 percent. What used to take 30 minutes will only take 10 from here on out. Money and reputation from winning events is getting bumped too, and that goes for non-first-place finishes too.
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Are we sure it was Disney that told EA to do that? I thought that was largely conjecture.
 
Delicieuxz said:
Lol, it's gone so far beyond loot boxes simply being in the games. The gameplay of Battlefront 2 and NFS Payback were actually designed around making progression utterly painful and basically futile for people not spending large money on loot boxes. Darth Vader was locked behind a 40-hour grindfest - and that's with a person doing nothing but grinding for 40 hours to unlock Darth Vader as a playable hero in BF2.
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Except that he was never gated by a 40 hour window. Even in the beta I don't think that was true. Vader cost 60k in game credits. It didn't take me anywhere near 10 hours to earn 40k+. I'm not saying the grind wasn't going to be painful, but lets be clear. It was never a 40 hour grind to unlock one hero character.
 
Dan_D said:
Except that he was never gated by a 40 hour window. Even in the beta I don't think that was true. Vader cost 60k in game credits. It didn't take me anywhere near 10 hours to earn 40k+. I'm not saying the grind wasn't going to be painful, but lets be clear. It was never a 40 hour grind to unlock one hero character.
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I won't do any kind of gaming grinding.. thats just boring shit.. last games ive played been on the wii, no grinding, just a game. Can't believe EA makes any money, fuck them and their bullshit and anyone that does anything similar.
 
NickJames said:


Long watch but he makes all the best points. TL;DR Loot boxes make up almost 50% of EA's revenue and climbing. When loot boxes are officially recognized as gambling EA is going to have a huge problem with their investors.
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This behavior was written on the wall the moment COD introduced MP progression.
 
twonunpackmule said:
This behavior was written on the wall the moment COD introduced MP progression.
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I play CoD. A lot, mostly zombies. I also play Overwatch. Overwatch's skins seem pointless to me, but harmless. I've never once felt compelled to actually pay CoD points for any of the upgrades and they DO have an impact on gameplay. I just don't understand why people keep paying for this shit.
 
Montu said:
I'm starting to think that the smack down Disney placed on EA is a really good thing. Not only are they addressing their crappy loot box system in Star Wars Battlefront 2, they're addressing the same thing in Need for Speed: Payback as well. I'm not usually a big Disney fan, but I'm going to have to say I'm glad they slapped EA around. It's time for loot boxes to go the way of the dodo.
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It was gamers who slapped EA around and consequently Disney by proxy, and they got worried about it hurting their profits. They're not the good guy here, it's one crappy corporation worrying about itself only and doing damage control by telling another crappy corporation how to make it go away. Another low effort SW movie is about to be released and they can't have anything hurt their cash cow.
 
davethehedgehog said:
I play CoD. A lot, mostly zombies. I also play Overwatch. Overwatch's skins seem pointless to me, but harmless. I've never once felt compelled to actually pay CoD points for any of the upgrades and they DO have an impact on gameplay. I just don't understand why people keep paying for this shit.
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It's a carrot on a string. Some won't bite, but others will. If it isn't this game, it'll be another. Eventually, it will effect something that you like. That's always been my take on it. People I've spoken about this with (friends and on other forums) always called this opinion hyperbole. But, I raise a furious stink over being locked out of job equipment in Battlefield. Like, I can't heal for the first round or anything until I unlock my basic kit? Like, seriously? This is how I saw what the goal of that whole thing was eventually going to be. I'm glad others like Sterling saw it for what it was too...even, if others didn't see that moment as the building blocks. Everyone cites Team Fortress, which I don't think is exactly fair.

I don't care about cosmetic systems. If it doesn't do anything but customize and appearance, then I don't care. It's not an issue for me. I care about it being integrated into the system of play and having an effect on others.
 
Is Nintendo on the switch pulling this shit too? Since the wii was the last time i played serious time with a console i was considering plunging in for a switch... I still play 3ds on occasion though, but to me that is akin to cellphone but better.
 
DrBorg said:
I like to play games where MY SKILL is the determining factor in how the game comes out; good luck finding one of those since gamespy went down.
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Skill?! But, but ... you'll hurt the precious feelings of them millenials! Everyone's a winner, no one's a loser, everyone gets a medal BS.

And I'm saying this as a millenial (just barely made the cutoff), albeit one who's participated in UGC :p
 
Uvaman2 said:
Is Nintendo on the switch pulling this shit too? Since the wii was the last time i played serious time with a console i was considering plunging in for a switch... I still play 3ds on occasion though, but to me that is akin to cellphone but better.
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Surprisingly, no. The Switch is probably the last straight up game console. For all the shit of Nintendo being outdated, this is one area of which it's a good thing.
 
Wanted to play BF2, no to loot boxes.

Don't care for the arcadeish play style of NFS, found it funny to hear people pay $60 for the game and an additional $40 + to unlock stuff faster.
 
No surprise to me for EA and the wall street that runs them.

Funny how I easily noticed that Forza 7 made all their "loot boxes" accessible and rewarding with in game currency well before all this recent hoo-ha (if you feel your in game currency doesn't add up fast enough, go into "Assists" scroll down to bottom and change the duration to Long or more, payouts are good and it requires more laps; how ingenious, more work gets you more money ;) instead of more $ gets you more money). I have found the $50,000 crates do a great job with rewarding Mod cards that always pay off more than you paid. Forza 6 was bit more difficult to "win" in this area, but F7 made crates and achievements much more user friendly, and not "trophies for everyone" friendly, just "I paid you real $ so let me enjoy the game if I put in some effort" friendly.
 
twonunpackmule said:
Surprisingly, no. The Switch is probably the last straight up game console. For all the shit of Nintendo being outdated, this is one area of which it's a good thing.
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They use amiibo to gate some things on 3DS (hardest mode on Metroid), but that's the only obnoxious one that pops into my head. Heck, you can use amiibo in Odyssey, but you can unlock all that stuff just by playing through the game normally, and it's all just outfits.

Nintendo has been getting a good chunk of my gaming dollars this year. They've knocked it out of the park with Zelda, Mario, and Metroid. Good games with no BS grinding.
 
Jim Kim said:
In 2012, PC free-to-play generated $11 billion in revenue and doubled to $22 billion in 2017. It is expected to grow a further $3 billion by 2022.
Meanwhile, revenue generated from full-game purchases has grown from $5 billion to $8 billion, and is estimated to reach $11 billion over the same time period.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2017-11-24-pc-free-to-play-revenue-has-doubled-since-2012
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Oh well, people voted already ' with their wallets' that is very clear... as always phycology in marketing wins resoundingly so.
 
This all makes me think of all of the games on the App Store for my iPad. All have "In Game Purchases" beyond the price of the game. Many are required to get anywhere in them. Same damn thing.
 
Nukester said:
This all makes me think of all of the games on the App Store for my iPad. All have "In Game Purchases" beyond the price of the game. Many are required to get anywhere in them. Same damn thing.
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I hate the APP world and I learned long ago the most expensive things in techland hardware, software and services are marked FREE. If there isn't a paid version of the app with full function and no ads, I take a pass. If it's FREE with ads, I pass. If it requires permissions that have no purpose for it's function, I pass. With these rules, it is no surprise I don't have many APPs :)
 
MarkVI said:
They use amiibo to gate some things on 3DS (hardest mode on Metroid), but that's the only obnoxious one that pops into my head. Heck, you can use amiibo in Odyssey, but you can unlock all that stuff just by playing through the game normally, and it's all just outfits.

Nintendo has been getting a good chunk of my gaming dollars this year. They've knocked it out of the park with Zelda, Mario, and Metroid. Good games with no BS grinding.
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The Metroid stuff can be bypassed through gameplay too. I think the only thing that can't is the additional Energy upgrade. Which, honestly, is more than the standard game usually gives. So, it's meh.

But, yes, they do Amibo stuff. It's no where on the same level though, and is sold as more of a "experience package"/collectable. I find almost everything it offers to be minor. I think they even started doing Amiibo cards to lower the price of entry on those features as they can't keep up with stock. Either way, I understand what you're saying...but I disagree because you are getting something physical with those Amiibos and the trade off is game functionality that is mostly minor.
 
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