Supercell pulls loot boxes from Brawl Stars to make things “more fair and predictable” for players
No more random rewards in Brawl Stars as all loot boxes have now been removed from the game. Supercell wanted to make things more fair for players, although some of them didn’t like the news.
What happened?
Supercell made an announcement in the latest episode of Brawl Talk (thanks GamesIndustry.biz). Brawl Stars game lead Frank Keienburg noted that this means “no more random rewards and no more playing the guessing game when you unlock Brawlers.”
The company noted that it wanted to make things “more fair and predictable” for players and give them clearer and more exciting goals.
All loot boxes were removed in the latest update released on December 12. Players who had unlocked but unclaimed boxes will automatically receive their rewards.
More details can be found in the latest patch note.
How did loot boxes work in Brawl Stars?
- Just like in many other free-to-play games, the so-called Brawl Boxes allowed players to obtain in-game items with a certain drop rate.
- These loot boxes contained coins, power points, boosters, and, most importantly, new characters. In fact, they were the only way to obtain Brawlers.
- With every draw that didn’t give the player a new character, the game used to increase their luck value. But luck also goes down based on the rarity of the new Brawler.
- Basic drop chances for power points/coins and a rare Brawler were 92.05% and 2.77%, respectively. The chance of getting a legendary character, however, was around 0.11%.
What will Supecell replace loot boxes with?
With the latest update, boxes have been replaced with “different, deterministic rewards”, so players always know exactly what items or characters they are going to get.
Supercell introduced the Starr Road reward track. Players will be able to collect a new currency called Credits by earning it from Brawl Pass, the Trophy Road, or by buying it in the shop.
These Credits can be spent on unlocking new non-Chromatic characters of different rarity levels. Players will also be able to choose from several Brawlers and will always know the progress they have already reached for each of them.
Despite the bad reputation of loot boxes and other luck-based mechanics, many Brawl Stars fans reacted negatively to the news. In the comments under the announcement video, some players wrote that “random character collection was the most interesting and exciting” thing about the game. Many users also asked Supercell to keep loot boxes while also giving an option to purchase Brawlers.
It is also unclear how these changes will affect the game’s earnings. Last year, Brawl Stars hit $1 billion in lifetime revenue, making it Supercell’s fourth title to reach a milestone like this.
