Overwatch and Hearthstone to Reduce Duplicate Loot Items

Double kill.

By Hope Corrigan

In separate videos, Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan, and Hearthstone game director Ben Brode have revealed changes that both development teams are making to improve their respective in-game loot reward systems.

"We are going to make significant improvements to the loot box experience," Kaplan explains, stating that the team is going to "drastically reduce the rate of duplicates that you'll get out of any loot box."

The game director also addresses the potential issue this could cause: duplicates are a major source of in-game currency, used to buy specific loot items. To compensate for this, Overwatch players will earn an increased amount of credits out of loot boxes, which Kaplan has promised will mean that "...credits will be the same if not more without duplicates."

This doesn't mean that Overwatch players will be entirely free from duplicate items. Kaplan reminds us "to keep in mind that the system doesn't have infinite content, so at some point you're obviously going to get duplicate items."

These changes come alongside the addition of in-game video capture, which allows players to record their highlights in high resolution, regardless of their gaming setup.

Overwatch's changes to loot boxes are available to experience now on its PC public test servers.

Hearthstone's card pack improvements will also begin soon, with Brode announcing: "Starting with our next expansion, every time you open a legendary card it'll be one you don't already have."

He adds that this should also benefit players who craft a legendary from in-game currency Dust - choosing to spend Dust on crafting a legendary card will no longer run the risk of opening a duplicate of it in a future booster pack.

Additionally, Brode goes on to add that with the new changes, "everyone will be guaranteed to open a legendary card within their first 10 packs of a new set."

Both changes are set to improve player experience when opening these in-game items, and come after Blizzard has already begun promotions with Twitch to offer a free legendary loot box when signing up to Twitch or Amazon Prime.

Hope Corrigan is a freelance news writer for IGN who suddenly has the urge to buy loot boxes. You can find her on the internet.

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