H1Z1 crates will work similar to Dota 2’s Treasure Chests

With H1Z1's Early Access starting next week, on January 15, Sony Online Entertainment's president John Smedley has taken to Twitter (because that's what he does) to kind of-sort of explain crates.

For those unfamiliar, crates were first mentioned back in April 2014 when SOE was first discussing their monetization plans for H1Z1. First off, the game will still be free-to-play, meaning it won't cost you anything to start playing once the game launches; although, oddly enough, you will have to pay for early access. But even though H1Z1 is a free-to-play game, SOE is still a business and it needs to make money. To that end, they will be selling things like wearables, or cosmetics.

There's also crates (not to be confused with air drops) that will be scattered around the game. The idea was still in the planning phase when crates were first discussed, with SOE saying they'd be filled with "random cool stuff from the store." On Twitter this week, Smedley talked a bit more about these crates, assuring players they won't affect the overall free-to-play structure of H1Z1.

Smedley actually likened H1Z1's crates to the Treasures in Dota 2 which are obtained as drops or can be purchased from the store. These treasures can contain things like cosmetic items or sets, but can only be opened with a Treasure Key. SOE was previously toying with the idea of letting players see what's inside of the crates before buying the key to unlock it, but they've yet to confirm whether or not that'll happen.

Addressing concerns that recipes will help players win, Smedley assured that the recipes will consist of things like "different skins or non power things" like a military backpack with camo that contains the same number of inventory slots as the regular backpack.

Either way, SOE has already confirmed they will not be selling things that'll help players survive, like guns, ammunition, food, or water. "That's kind of the whole game and it would suck in our opinion if we did that," Smedley said.