unironically ow1’s lootbox were just about anything but predatory. The only annoying bit was event only cosmetics and the few three weeks skin challenges, but that isn’t “level up 55 times to get a new hero” or “grind dozens of annoying challenges to get done faster”.
And i don’t think there were ever $20 normal legendaries
If I had to guess I’d bet that box sales make up a far greater share of that revenue than many would suspect. Smurfing is big business 
Need vs greed
It works because people are easily convinced of the former….
Those of us who had the willpower to not gamble on lootboxes benefitted greatly, that’s for sure. I have pretty much every skin I could ever dream of having on every character, including a large number that I’m never realistically going to play.
But I have to wonder how much of that was funded on the backs of people with poor impulse control, gambling issues, or little regard for money. I made out like a bandit, yes, but I’m curious as to whether those people shouldered my burden.
I can believe it. Even though I’ve barely touched Comp since early this year, there’s always a good amount of bronze borders in QP. It would also be interesting to see how much money Blizz is foregoing on smurfs while gambling on skin DLC nickle-and-diming in OW2.
i’m not saying it wasn’t predatory on some level, i just wholly disagree it’s “just as predatory” as whatever ow2 is doing
2019 - $649 million
2020 - $800 million
2021 - $880 million
So let’s think about this, because to the average kid these seem like astronomical numbers and they think “hurrr why they rob me wif monetizashun”…
So by the table OW did not make even those numbers, but below them. Let’s say they made 90%… sounds great eh? Look at this table:
https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/ATVI/activision-blizzard/financial-statements
Now look particularly at the line marked “EBIT” - that is net income after [EDIT: before] taxes and interest. For 2021 its only 3.2 Billion. Sounds like a lot, right? Bear in mind less than 10% of that is Overwatch - it might not even be 5% in reality. But let’s call it 10%.
If OW made less than 10%, then it made less than 320 million. Now to the average person this sounds like a lot, but for a company at this scale its actually not.
The writer clearly doesn’t understand how to read the financial statements and misreported. To the untrained ear they think “wow those greedy you-know-whats” but in the world they are in, for other companies like Riot, they are doing terribly financially.
I need to ask my wife who has a masters in accounting to help me deduce the likely number after EPS, I don’t believe EBIT includes that, which is another payout from that remaining number.
You are not special for not spending anything extra on Overwatch. Stop placing yourself on a pedestal whilst immediately belittling and attacking those that did. Many people, like myself, don’t have poor impulse or gambling issues. We chose to buy it because we enjoyed the ‘present’ vibe it gave, whilst appreciating the devs for their work at the time.
You are out of order.
If it wasn’t for hero unlocks I’d disagree with you. I feel that a battle pass/cosmetic shop is simply more apparent - I forget that purchasing loot boxes is even an option sometimes. But since future hero unlocks are a thing? Maybe.
I don’t think that literally everyone who bought a lootbox has problems. I also don’t think that everyone who buys a skin or battlepass has a problem. You are no less of a person for buying a lootbox, SmaruIKusia.
800 million a year? I find that really hard to believe. 
See my post above, its well under half that for real income before EPS is paid out.
battlepasses are actually more sneaky. Under the guise of telling you what you buy they essentially sell you a bundle but then don’t even give it to you, you have to grind them with dailies.
They look cheap, but then you realize there’s like 3-4 worthwhile items tops and the rest is trash no one cares about.
They turn the game into a job, since they basically tell you “if you don’t play X amount you’re gonna lose money”
NO SHUT UP THINK OF THE STARVING DEVS! THEY NEED $20 SKINS BECAUSE OTHERWISE THEY WON’T BE ABLE TO AFFORD RENT, AND WILL BE HOMELESS!
Someone was literally talking about how devs needed money to feed their families. Well over 120k/ year base starting pay. Blizz devs are absolutely slumming it. The sad part is that they weren’t joking. What a joke…
funny because amidst record sales blizzard laid off A LOT of people.
plus most devs get paid hourly, so they already were paid. At best they get hired again
But unlike lootboxes, there’s not really an element of chance. So while I won’t buy the battlepass, at least they’re transparent in what you get. You will get that mythic Genji skin or whatever if you put in the time (not that you should have to). You might not get it in the first fifty lootboxes or whatever.
see, that’s the trick. By “not having a chance element” they got away with even more underhanded psychological tricks
I think it’s far more likely that this is a website making wild, inflammatory claims based on nothing more than what would drive clicks up than the actual truth.
Seriously even if you go way over the estimated player base in 2021, that would mean each and every player averaged spending 80 USD that year.
No way.
I’ve also seen people blame inflation for it, too. But in reality, we all know that OW1 made loads of money. Everything launching with OW2 all the way up until seasons 8+ of the BP? Already funded. “NUH UH, WHERE’S YOUR SOURCE?” Multiple interviews/streams, the fact that OW2 isn’t even out yet and they’re currently working on that content means that surprise surprise, they were getting funding from OW1. This is purely just greed on blizzard’s part, launching in to an existing, already saturated market with zero new innovations/changes that make it worth playing. Instead i’s just a short term cash grab, with the hopes and intentions that PvE in 2023 will bring back players and retain them. But by the time PvE is released, it’ll be too late, and they’ll have announced a PvE only battlepass + locked talents and maps behind the bp, etc.
They are not sneaky, it’s right in plain sight. A usual, don’t like the deal, don’t take it.
As for layoffs during sales, they were also losing money in other areas. For a AAA company, they are actually doing pretty badly right now.
Judging from the backlash, and given that we don’t know the amount of lootbox sales, I’m not sure they did. I know that I’m not buying and grinding out that pass and this forum is full of people saying similar stuff. It could be that the lootbox system is more underhanded and sneaky because it appears more fair, while in reality having just as many unpleasant consequences.
Of course, I can’t say for sure because as it turns out, we don’t know the numbers. All I know is that I don’t like or trust either model of monetization.