'Rainbow Six Siege' Dev Defends Limited Run Loot Boxes

By Nathaniel Artosilla, Christian Post Contributor Wednesday, February 21, 2018

"Rainbow Six Siege" will be rolling out loot boxes for a limited run and as if expecting a firestorm, brand director Alexandre Remy went ahead and defended the decision. With the game being one of the biggest first-person shooters today, the Ubisoft seems intent on avoiding the same fate as EA's "Star Wars Battlefront 2."

In recent months, loot boxes have been a hot topic in gaming with players either willingly accepting them or being met with intense hatred. However, there's no denying that crates dishing out randomized cosmetic items is a great moneymaker for developers and publishers.

So it's probably no surprise that Ubisoft is planning to release a limited run of these loot boxes as part of Outbreak, a limited-time event that will kick off season one of Year 3 and slated for March 6. The loot boxes will be available for purchase alongside the existing free alpha packs that reward "Rainbow Six Siege" players with cosmetic items.

However, due to the issues regarding loot boxes, Ubisoft decided to clarify their stance on the feature. For one, the development team believes that they should never contain items that can affect gameplay.

Nevertheless, the community backlash that stemmed from locking certain cosmetics behind a paywall compelled Ubisoft to explain themselves. After all, the randomized nature of loot boxes is one way of alienating a game's player base because no player wants to spend $100 just to get the item they want.

"I feel like the loot boxes act like the gift shop after the rollercoaster," Remy told MCV. "I am feeling very empathetic towards players upset with this, but at the same time I do not feel we are cheating anyone, I don't think we are being greedy whatsoever."

Opening "Rainbow Six Siege" loot boxes are of course, up to the player. So for those who are willing to spend real dough on some digital doodads, each loot box will cost 300 R6 Credits, which depending on the number of credits purchased, roughly varies between $2 and $3.