Loot boxes are coming to Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4's next big content drop, Operation Grand Heist, brings loot boxes back to the series.
Loot boxes have technically never left Call of Duty games, but the timing of their arrival varies by game. In 2017's Call of Duty: WW2, for example, they were there at launch, dubbed Supply Drops.
The same concept was also present in Black Ops 3, but their implementation in that game soured a lot of people on it. The reason being that Supply Drops contained new weapons with different stats, not just cosmetic items, which made it incredibly hard for players to get the weapon they wanted later in the game's life cycle.
Now, loot boxes are coming to Black Ops 4. This time around, they're called Cases, and they're arriving as part of the Operation Grand Heist update, which drops later today on PS4, and next week on other platforms.
Treyarch noted in a blog post that players can earn Cases by playing multiplayer or Blackout. Cases can also be purchased as part of the Black Market content stream.
As for their content, they remain cosmetic only for now. Operation Grand Heist brings back Blackjack’s shop along with his Reserves. Cases will contain items found in Blackjack’s Reserves, which typically means Mastercraft weapons that debuted with the previous operations.
The introduction of loot boxes in Black Ops 4 is a particularly sticking point for some players. For one thing, Black Ops 4 is a full-price game with a $50 season pass that already includes several other ways of monetisation like the Black Market - essentially a battle pass, and direct-purchase cosmetics.
The other thing to consider is that there's always the chance these Cases will eventually contain actual weapons and not just cosmetic variants. This was the case with Black Ops 3, and Advanced Warfare before it.