Although the original Warhammer End Times: Vermintide employed loot boxes and a randomized reward structure for missions, it was never exploitative, never asked for money or even offered in-game currency of any type. Despite those caveats, the developer, Fatshark, has explained why it's dropping the practice entirely from its sequel, as it doesn't want to be even considered in the same camp as cash grab games like Star Wars: Battlefront II.
"Loot comes from gameplay, not your wallet," FatShark said, via PCGamesN, in a discussion of what are some of the best practices for games that aren't AAA and aren't free to play. While it admits that it can be difficult to find that point where a game remains profitable, leveraging mobile tactics in a premium title is not the answer, it said.
"That doesn't make sense," lead designer Victor Magnuson said. "[It] often serves more to "makes gamers angry. As long as our audience is happy, we're happy. We will try to avoid or cancel things that would make the community angry, because they're our fans, they love playing our games, we're here to serve them. And when we release the game it's not our game anymore, it's the community's game. We need to make sure that they have the best possible time with our game."
With Vermintide 2, gameplay will unlock loot and the randomized elements that were present in the original game won't be there this time around. Although FatShark does have plans for DLC and additional content, it believes in pricing the content fairly and making sure that all consumers can access it without feeling like they're being robbed of time or money.
Ultimately Magnuson said, it was about making a game where the core focus was "entertainment," not money making.
Here here.
