Middle-earth: Shadow of War is ditching loot boxes

The evils of capitalism, like Sauron, have been dealt a blow. Six months after it launched, Monolith has announced that Middle-earth: Shadow of War’s Orc-filled loot boxes, or war chests, are going to be plucked out of the open world action romp, along with all traces of microtransactions. You’ll need to wait a little bit longer for Middle-earth to be free though, as the changes aren’t happening until July 17. Shadow of War’s loot boxes were widely criticised at launch.

The system encouraged players to buy war chests with currency that could be purchased for cash, unlocking allied Orcs instead of finding them in the wild and converting them. It wasn’t just a way to scrape more money out of players, it also reduced one of the best parts of the game to a monetary transaction. Monolith’s impending removal of war chests, gold and the market isn’t an admission that microtransactions in single-player premium games are sort of crummy, but