In one of the day’s more bizarre gaming stories, official Chinese gaming regulations have forced Blizzard Entertainment to reveal the chances of getting rare, epic and legendary items in loot boxes.
The data, which was published on the Chinese official Overwatch site reveals that every loot box is guaranteed to contain at least one rare item, while epic items appear, on average, once in every 5.5 boxes. As you would expect, legendary items are even harder to get hold of, with one appearing every 13.5 loot boxes on average.
Players collect loot boxes by levelling up, playing a seasonal event, or being victorious in the game’s arcade mode. Or, if all that sounds like too much hard work, then you can just buy them, with two loot boxes costing £1.69/$1.99 and larger packs giving players better value.
Of course, these stats only apply to the Chinese version of Overwatch, no other country or region has similar regulations and Blizzard may tweak probabilities in different regions.
According to industry analyst ZhugeEX’s blog, the regulations, which went live on May 1, reflect the Chinese government cracking down on game operators in the country, whose games occasionally contain references to, or promotion of, illegal gambling or pornography. They also contain rules designed to make games safer and a renewed commitment to enforce existing rules that cover things like gamers having to use real IDs to register, limiting the amount that can be spent on in-app purchases, and requiring two-step verification for those purchases.
But, with all games operating in the country now required to publish data on just how random those random loot drops are, it seems likely that Blizzard will only be the first publisher forced to reveal exactly what your chances are of getting that shiny new toy.
