While starting off innocently enough, loot boxes have quickly become a divisive game mechanic for many players. It can be argued that Overwatch really pushed the idea of loot boxes into the mainstream as players were rewarded another box stuff with in-game content for levelling up their account. Unfortunately, other games quickly followed suit and things quickly spiralled out of control. After receiving a lot of flak from its community after announcing the inclusion of loot boxes to its predominantly single-player campaign, Middle-earth: Shadow of War is finally making a pretty big change to its in-game store.

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The other promised change is with Shadow Wars, the end game content players can join once the campaign has ended. Monolith is preparing to add more narrative elements while also streamlining gameplay for a better experience. Endless Siege will remain available and Monolith has also teased more gameplay improvements plus the addition of new content like character skins, skill tree additions, and more. These updates are planned to launch on July 17 and players have until May 8 to purchase additional gold. Any unused gold in player accounts will be transferred into in-game items.

While fans may never know what truly prompted these changes, never the less, it's a big win for the community who felt this way when the marketplace and loot box reveal occurred last year. It's possible that the mess Star Wars Battlefront 2 caused with its predatory system had a direct impact on Monolith's game. Battlefront 2's situation got so bad that EA had to gut the system completely while governments in places like Hawaii, Australia and the UK began investigations into these sorts of practices in video games. Needless to say, the negative backlash is clearly having an impact on games moving forward.

Middle-earth: Shadow of War is available now on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

Source: Monolith