Overwatch China Now "Gifting" Lootboxes To Avoid New Law

Only just recently, Overwatch China had released the data on the probabilities of their lootboxes. This was in accordance with the "lootbox law" that had come into effect on May 1st, 2017 in China, a new law which mandates all game publishers to publicly announce the probabilities on lootboxes and/or items with randomly generated properties.

However, Overwatch China seems to have found a loophole in the law, and are now selling in-game currency with the lootboxes bundled as "free gifts". As the law states that only lootboxes purchased directly with real currency are subject to disclosure of item probabilities, it seems Blizzard has found a clever workaround to secure the payload.

In an official forum post, Blizzard announced that starting from patch 1.12, Overwatch China will be replacing the sale of lootboxes with in-game currency bundles as follows...

• 5 coins (+2 bonus lootboxes) - ¥12
• 15 coins (+5 bonus lootboxes) - ¥30
• 30 coins (+11 bonus lootboxes) - ¥60
• 60 coins (+24 bonus lootboxes) - ¥120
• 120 coins (+50 bonus lootboxes) - ¥238

This announcement coincidentally ties in with the last week of Overwatch's Anniversary event, the promotion of which includes limited-time Anniversary lootboxes for purchase. As the event ends on June 12th, this new change may just lure those on the fence about purchasing a few lootboxes before the event is over.

While the lootbox law was issued to better educate consumers against gambling with random loot generators, it seems the new ordinance is not playing well with big game publishers, judging by how Blizzard has forced their hand on the issue. While Blizzard may have circumvented the law for now, they won't be able to keep the chairman from looking over their shoulder for long.