Blizzard President Thinks Overwatch Loot Boxes are Non-Controversial

As you might be aware, if you have two functioning eyes, there's a bit of a controversy engulfing the gaming industry at the moment as people find themselves plagued with loot boxes. These once harmless gimmicks have turned into an epidemic, with every game shoehorning the damn system into their gameplay however they can: be they stuffed with harmless cosmetics to weapons to freaking orcs. People are getting sick of them, and so, a few critical eyes have turned to the folks who popularized this once-infrequent monetizating practice: Overwatch.

For those unaware, in order to get skins, tags, voice lines, and other loot in Overwatch, you can't just buy it directly. You have to get it in a loot box, which is either gotten automatically every time you level up or purchased from the store for a small fee. And while it's far nicer about the system than a lot of games these days (coughBattlefront 2cough), no one can deny that the loot boxes are there, and that they're part of the problem.

Nobody, that is, except Blizzard co-founder and president Mike Morhaime, who told Game Informer that their version of loot boxes are a-okay.

I think there's absolutely nothing wrong with crates that give you randomized items. I think that whatever the controversy is, I don't think Overwatch belongs in that controversy I think another element, in terms of the gambling question, the question in terms of that is whether or not you're actually... There's an element of converting back into real-world value. I think that's a critical element, and that element does not exist in Overwatch loot crates.

He was fairly defensive in the interview, which in part explains his rambling, semi-incoherent answer, but it's fairly obvious he believes that, however Blizzard is doing loot boxes, they're doing it right. Not that we could really expect a different answer from the president of the company, but still, his opinion is out there.

It's the wrong opinion, but there you go.