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PlayerUnknown responds to player’s complaints about buying crate keys with real money

PlayerUnknown (also known as Brendan Greene) directly addressed a Reddit post about buying crates with real money and apologized about not being more specific, according to a Steam Community update from him.

In the update, PlayerUnknown said that the crate and key system for PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds full release has not been finalized and that they are still going through and making changes. He says that the game needs to have a “self-sustainable” economy after release, and acknowledges that the developers are wanting the economy to “benefit all players.”

“But still, I must admit that our messaging wasn’t very clear, so I extend my sincere apologies for the confusion caused,” said PlayerUnknown. “The process of communicating our intentions precisely to our fans and communities should have been done in a more careful and prudent manner. I’ve learned a lot, and we’ll try to communicate better moving forward.”

The Reddit post in question, which was released a week ago, says that special crates (which require a $2.50 key to unlock) are going to cost a lot of money for players. The author of the post, LinksGayAwakening, says that by using these keys to open crates to get full outfits could possibly cost at least $10 or more, depending on whether or not the player gets duplicates (which is a possibility).

“I don’t have a problem with cosmetics. I don’t have a problem with them costing money. I have a problem with a full outfit costing a minimum of 7.50-10 dollars, the price essentially being randomized at checkout, and multiple layers in place to ensure that a majority of players get the same pieces over and over forcing them to spend more,” said the author of the Reddit post.

It ended up becoming the highest voted post in the PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds thread in the thread’s history.

In response, PlayerUnknown said that the developers are thinking about a possibility of free cosmetics items in the future, along with there being a free-to-open crate system (this one is in place now) where players can open no more than six crates in the week so that they also have a chance to earn cosmetics items. Crates are earned with in-game currency, and their prices will be changed each week.

This will give the opportunity to players who want to unlock crates without having to pay. Also, players can trade cosmetic items using the Steam Marketplace if they don’t get exactly what they want.

“I do understand your concerns about the system, but I feel testing for a sturdy economy on the Steam Marketplace is necessary at this stage and ultimately beneficial for the game,” said PlayerUnknown about the crate and key system. “And once again, this is a purely optional system, and you are not forced into participating if you do not feel like it.”

Users in the Reddit thread mention that the crate and key system may just be a way for the developers of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds to earn more money, since the game unexpectedly took off after launching into early access.

In comparison, Overwatch, another massively popular game, also has a “crate” system they refer to as loot boxes. Players can pay money to earn loot boxes, which willl give them four randomly selected items. Two loot boxes cost $1.99, which could give the player eight items. On the other hand, in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, each key itself will cost $2.50 and earn players only one item.

While I do think that using both the crate and key and free to open systems will help the game’s economy, I have to agree with the Reddit post (to a certain extent) in that it could possibly cost players a lot of money to get exactly what they want.

Featured image via Flickr/BagoGames.

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