Need For Speed Heat was just announced this past week, after months of waiting and speculation about the future of the iconic racing game brand. A big part of that announcement was the reveal that the game will have an in-depth car customization system, including skins and other tweaks. This raised quite a few alarm bells with gamers who are concerned about loot boxes in games.
After all, Forza Motorsport landed in hot water a while back over its handling of both cosmetic and gameplay-affecting microtransacitons, both of which were tied to an aggressive loot box system. Good news though, it turns out that EA might have actually listened to gamers for once.
“There are no loot boxes in NFS Heat, and there won’t be.” According to a statement from EA DICE community manager Ben Walke on Reddit.
The post goes further, revealing future plans for some DLC as well, “We plan to have post launch paid-DLC in the form of car packs,” so that’s OK. The one point that gamers might have an issue with is a “time-save” pack which can be purchased to reveal collectible in a certain area. This could be derisive depending on the price, but gamers can be pretty fickle, so who knows how it will turn out..
It’s important to keep in mind that we’re still a few months out from launch, and plans can always change. It’s a possibility that the publisher could reverse course on this issue. This is especially true since Need for Speed Payback had a system where car upgrades would be dispensed by slot machines and loot boxes, and people hated it. So let’s just hope that this new racing title doesn’t fall into that trap.
Need For Speed Heat will launch on November 8 for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One.
