Need For Speed Heat ditches any form of loot boxes

NFSd: Heat won't be doling out car parts through slot machines.

There are a few givens when you pick up a Need For Speed game. Fast cars? Naturally. Pumping club music? Sure. Utterly daft attitude? Absolutely.

One thing Heat isn't carrying over from its predecessor is casino-style car-part acquisition. Previous entry Payback was a bit rubbish, in large part because car parts and upgrades were doled out through slots and loot boxes.

During a Q&A over on the Need For Speed subreddit, EA Community Manager Ben "F8RGE" Walke allayed fears that Heat would be as infuriatingly random as Payback.

"There are no loot boxes in NFS Heat, and there won't be" Walke confirmed. That's not a semantics play, either - no loot crates, no "surprise mechanics", nothing.

Instead, expect a more traditional DLC model. Walke claimed Heat will sell car packs as time goes on, and eventually drop a "time-save" pack that reveals all collectables on the map.

Out of all the high-profile publishers, EA probably relies on "surprise mechanics" the most. The publisher has been particularly defensive of its FIFA Ultimate Team packs, and the less said about Star Wars Battlefront 2, the better.

As authorities around the globe close in on loot boxes, could EA have been spooked into dropping them in Heat?