Overwatch revealed the drop rate from the Loot Boxes within the in-game, thanks to the Loot Box law by China. The law dictates that every sold game will need to provide information of drop rates, so the players can understand the ideas and certainty of getting the in-game features before there is avoidable and unsustainable spending for possible fake items. You can now look up all the theoretical percentages for the drop rate, on google and the internet in general now.
It’s a good start seeing some companies reveal how likely they are to win, the same way as all online casino games from casinos have to display their users’ return value. Since Loot Boxes and similar methods of in-game purchases should be considered the same.
The information that you would be looking for is very generic indeed, as each Loot Box will contain either 3 or 4 items with the contributing credits. Yet, of course, there will also be a rare item (at least) included, that provides higher quality. There are statistics that state that on average there can be rarer items found in one Loot Box, out of every 5.5 boxes. The legendary items on the other hand will be included in one out of every 13.5 boxes. Common items, however, will always have a 99% initial drop rate value, whereas the rare and epic items come at 94% and 18.5% respectively. Legendary items are only at 7.5%, which really indicates to you how rare it in fact is. (source)
The percentages and rates, however, only actually apply to the standard Loot Boxes, meaning it does not apply to the seasonal drops-like the Winter Wonderland variety, which can be expected once every year. The Archive and the Anniversary events follow such seasonal/ event appearances too. Overwatch has stated that the items that you can get from the boxes do not really give you incentives or further benefits when you are actually playing the game, which is quite amusing really if you think about it.
There are advantages to using the Loot Box items, as discovered by some players. The D.Va and Pharah skins can be used to elude your footsteps within the game, which has only come to light recently, from the top dedicated players around the world. All that being said, however, Overwatch has never plagued their gameplay varieties with the buyable components within their games that other variants within the industry actually provide. Yet many players and politicians have called out Overwatch for encouraging players to practice a unique form of gambling for their Loot Box practices.
China as mentioned above has actually forced the game series Blizzard to specifically reveal their drop rates for the games Hearthstone and Overwatch. The USA is soon to follow pursuit with more rigid instructions, as politicians such as Josh Hawley believe that these games actually expose children to gambling from a young age-without any regulations and restrictions. For that reason, the ‘Protecting Children Abusive Games Act has been introduced for discussion and passing as law, to target the malpractice behind the Loot Boxes and the in-game pay-to-win game practices that players usually participate in.
Many developers have not proposed to agree to the concerns without the need of passing laws as introduced in China. Blizzard has agreed to always feature their drop rates for all their game titles as of recently. This has put the Overwatch players at ease massively, as they believe that they can rest easy, knowing the odds they face when receiving certain skins from the Loot Boxes.
It is worrying nevertheless that game developers find the need to abuse the drop rates within their games-just for a financial gain of some sort. It is basically an indirect way of setting up an online casino virtually as developers want you to think you are pretty much indirectly taking it easy on your purchases, especially when you reveal what’s in Loot Boxes. Yet, as a player, you will keep on purchasing until you get what you want, won’t you, no matter how much you know how inadvisable it is to purchase in search of your favorite items? So, by developers actually informing their customers, they will not be doing anything negative here, but minimizing the gamble and actually focusing on the playing part, which is what it is all about, no?
In light of all this information, players will obviously become more vocal about it as time passes on, so guess we’ll just have to wait and see how the reception from gamers globally actually unfolds.
