Slowly but surely, developers are finally realizing that yes, most players detest unlocking items via randomized loot boxes rather than transparent progression systems (like Fortnite's highly profitable Battle Pass). That goes doubly for full-price games. Earlier this year, War Chests were purged from Middle-earth: Shadow of War - and now Forza Motorsport 7 is following suit, with plans to completely phase out prize crates completely, ideally by the end of the year.
In the Forza Summer Update blog post, Turn 10 studio head Alan Hartman explained the coming changes. "While we’ve never charged money for prize crates in Forza Motorsport 7, their presence in the game has continued to be a source of controversy," he wrote. "The overwhelming feedback has been that this system feels out of place in the game. After careful consideration, we have decided to completely remove prize crates from Forza Motorsport 7. Similarly, paid tokens - which were a part of previous Forza games - will not be coming to Forza Motorsport 7 or Forza Horizon 4."
That's fantastic news for any racers who loathes the uncertainty of loot crates - and you'll probably notice that the car collection in your garage just got substantially larger. "Due to the complexity of removing prize crates from the game - while keeping access to Driver Gear, Mods and Badges - we expect that this process will be completed in the winter timeframe," Hartman explained. "Starting this month we’ve already taken steps towards that goal, first by unlocking more than 100 previously locked 'exclusive' cars and, second, by completely removing cars from the prize crates in the game."
After the industry-wide reverberations felt by the backlash to Star Wars Battlefront 2's loot boxes, it's increasingly clear that gating off powerful items behind low-percentage lotteries is a surefire way to deeply alienate even the loyalest playerbase. But fans of further customization via cosmetics will need to wait until the target window of winter before they can mess around with all the prize-crate-only options. "The current lineup of prize crates offer no competitive advantage and only offer Driver Gear suits, Mods and badges, and these crates will remain in place until crates are removed entirely," wrote Hartman. It's a start, but it seems like some players won't be happy until they never have to worry about random chance for their most coveted items in any game ever.
To see what else is in store for the Forza series, read up on everything there is to know about Forza Horizon 4.
