Turn 10, developers of Xbox exclusive racing sim Forza have announced that they will remove loot boxes in future updates. The team also revealed that the upcoming open-world racing spin-off Forza Horizon 4 won’t include loot boxes or paid tokens as well.
In a blog post on the official Forza website, head of Turn 10 studio Alan Hartman explained the current state of the Forza franchise, including its prime simulator series Forza and the open-world spin-off Forza Horizon games. With the later putting a tad more spotlight on arcade fun, Forza Horizon quickly became immensely popular with racing fans. Just a few months ago then, Microsoft announced not only a fourth entry to arrive this year but also the acquisition of Playground Games, the developers of Forza Horizon. Now, the studio is part of the Xbox first-party development ensemble .
After patting his team on the back by lauding the many content updates, with cars, modes and more, Hartman went straight to the jugular and addressed a criticism Forza 7 has been getting since release. Loot boxes. While not being purchasable with real-life money, the inclusion of a luck-based progression system, didn’t sit well with some gamers. After all, loot boxes is hardly a term associated with anything good in games. In Forza 7 loot boxes, or prize crates as they are called in the game, offered players the chance of receiving cars or cosmetic items.
One major area of discussion for the team has been prize crates. While we’ve never charged money for prize crates in Forza Motorsport 7, their presence in the game has continued to be a source of controversy. The overwhelming feedback has been that this system feels out of place in the game. After careful consideration, we have decided to completely remove prize crates from Forza Motorsport 7. Similarly, paid tokens – which were a part of previous Forza games – will not be coming to Forza Motorsport 7 or Forza Horizon 4.
So, it should come as good news that Turn 10 has decided to completely remove loot boxes from Forza 7. On top of that, paid tokens won’t be coming to Forza 7 either. These tokens were in-game currency which could be bought with real money in previous Forza games and were used to buy vehicles.
And if that wasn’t enough good news, Hartman also confirmed that the upcoming Forza Horizon 4 will not include loot boxes or paid tokens as well. A welcome confirmation which should make fans waiting in anticipation let off a sigh of relief.
These changes will take time however, “due to the complexity of removing prize crates from the game”, with Hartman thinking that this process will be finished in this winter. For now, over 100 cars previously locked behind prize crates have been unlocked for regular purchase, while leaving only cosmetic items in them.
