Recent games such as Assassin’s Creed Origins had courted controversy for its inclusion of loot boxes. Some developers have tried to assuage players’ fears by trying to say that these loot boxes won’t significantly affect gameplay. In refreshing approach to the issue, Monster Hunter World will not feature loot boxes at all, as Capcom stated to Gamespot recently.
The Monster Hunter series producer, Ryozo Tsujimoto stated, “”You’ve already kind of got loot as a core gameplay aspect without having to shove a microtransaction version of it in.” As loot is a core mechanic of the game, some might have expected that Capcom would have tried to monetize on the latest trend of including loot boxes. However, the team explained that they would have to rethink many aspects of gameplay if they wanted to include gameplay.
The game’s director Yuuya Tokuda also had a similar response about why loot boxes wouldn’t fit with into the game, “The idea is that the time you spend hunting and the action part of the game is how you brush up on your skills. And then of course you get rewards of better items; but by skipping out on the part where you get better and hunt–if you’re simply getting more items–I don’t think that’ll be a very satisfying experience for players because it wouldn’t even necessarily make it that much more of a time saver if you haven’t got the skill to use the items you’ve gotten.”
It’s refreshing to see a developer prioritize its vision of gameplay over monetization. As of now, the team would have to completely re-think their game if they wanted to include loot boxes and that is not something they’re “particularly planning to do at this time,” according to Monster Hunter World game director Kaname Fujioka.
The game is set to release worldwide for the PS4 and Xbox One on January 26th, 2018 and for the PC at some later date. The game’s beta will be available to try out for PlayStation Plus users in December.