More than a year has passed since Electronic Arts defended itself from the UK Parliament by calling its loot boxes “surprise mechanics” and now it seems that they will not be so much anymore. Electronic Arts has announced that the vast majority of FIFA 21 packs can now be previewed before purchasing, meaning you can see what’s inside the loot box before spending your money.
This is a breakthrough for an industry trying to move past gambling-like mechanics. There are few cases of children affected by addiction and it seems that EA has finally decided to take a step forward and give in to pressure from players and more from a European government. Of course, there is a catch in all this.
Just a little bit of chance
You can only preview one type of envelope at a time. So if for example you are looking for a premium gold pack (1 special player, 11 commons), you will be able to see what is inside and if you don’t like it, you will not buy it. However, you cannot do that infinitely, as you will have to wait 17 hours to preview the same type of envelope again. This prevents players from abusing this new mechanic.
On the other hand, if you preview the envelope, like what you see, and buy it, you can preview another envelope and keep doing it until you preview one that you don’t buy. As if that were not enough, the packs that do not cost money (the ones you win for prizes) will not be able to be previewed since no real money was spent on them.
You can see the details written by EA in a your blog post, It seems that it will mark a before and after in the industry and we will see if other large companies follow this line or eliminate the loot boxes in the bud.
