If you’ve ever pondered what exactly the chances are of landing that legendary Overwatch skin, you now finally have closure. Back in December we reported that China was clamping down on in-game loot. Four months on and Overwatch developer, Blizzard, has finally complied.
China officials were keen to start clamping down on the process, demanding that gaming publishers reveal to players the probability of earning a desirable item.
Loot boxes typically vary in price depending on the drop rate of certain items: the better the chance for a rare/powerful item in the loot box, the higher the price. Often there is a flat price, with no distinguishable rate to determine the chances of receiving a rare item.
That’s changed in China, however, with new regulations changing the way publishers sell in-game aesthetics and upgrades. Other countries could soon follow.
The regulations say that online game publishers “shall promptly and publicly announce information about the name, property, content, quantity, and draw/forge probability of all virtual items and services that can be drawn/forge on the official website or a dedicated draw probability webpage of the game. The information on draw probability shall be true and effective.”
Further to this, all random draw results must be listed for public access and for “government inquiry”.
“The record must be kept for more than 90 days. When publishing the random draw results, some measures should be taken place to protect user privacy,” the new policy states.
Blizzard has since revealed the loot box drop rates, and they’re not all that surprising. Let’s take a look at the chance of landing each type of loot in a loot box containing four items.
Blue (Rare Item): Every loot box
Purpole (Epic): Every 5.5 loot boxes
Orange (Legendary): Every 13.5 loot boxes
So there you have it. Those are the loot box drop rates for Overwatch. We’re not 100 percent certain whether those rates apply to every country, but we can probably assume that they do.