Rocket League Replacing Loot Crates with Blueprints

About a month ago, we reported on some mildly good news to come out of the factory of misery that is known more broadly as Epic Games: Rocket League, their semi-recently acquired car sports game, was going to remove the loot crate and key system that had been implemented years ago in an effort to cash in on the loot box craze. However, they did clarify that they weren’t giving up on microtransactions – they were just going to change how they worked, which is about the best news we could expect from them, assuming they didn’t think of some system that was somehow worse than the ol’ loot box.

Well, today, they revealed their final plans: by December, loot crates and keys will be replaced with ‘blueprints’ and credits.

The system is pretty straightforward. Instead of occasionally getting loot crates that need to be opened with purchased keys, you instead get a ‘blueprint’, which can be crafted into a final product with ‘credits’, which are the new premium currency. Blueprints always tell you exactly what they’ll create, so you can craft or ignore them at your leisure.

And if you’re just not getting the blueprints you want, you can visit the in-game store, where rotating cars and accessories can be purchased directly with credits. The developer, Psyonix, did specifically say that items purchased in the shops cannot be traded, while they did not specifically say if Blueprints could or could not be traded.

For people who have been hording loot chests or keys, they’ll get some compensation. Loot chests will be turned into a blueprints, while keys will be turned into credits. Also, the Rocket Passes will continue to operate as normal, with the only change being that you’ll buy them with credits instead of keys. The Esports Shop is also unchanged.

So, whatta think? Better or worse?