Rocket League ditches loot boxes and introduces an item shop
Crates are out and blueprints are in.
Big changes are coming to car football today. Rocket League has replaced its lock and key lootbox system with an item shop and blueprints for items. The new system is still random, but takes away the risk that you'll spend any actual money on an item you don't want.
Rocket League previously had a loot box system where "crates" with special cosmetic items like decals and wheels could be opened with keys bought by players with real money. Psyonix announced back in August that they would be retiring the Key and Crate system. Today is the day that Crates are out and Credits are in.
You'll be able to spend Credits (bought with actual cash) in a few ways. First is the new Item Shop which opens today. In the Item Shop you can just outright buy items you want, but the selection available will rotate daily. "Featured" items will be available for 48 hours before rotating and "Daily" ones every 24. Everyone loves artificial scarcity.
You can also spend Credits on building items from Blueprints. Instead of unlocking crates with keys, players will now earn Blueprints after "select Online Matches." Blueprints will show a particular item that a player can spend their credits to create. It's still a system for spending real money on in-game shiny stuff but the elements of randomization have been moved around. If you aren't interested in the item shown on the Blueprint, you can trade it away to other players.
This change may make waves with folks closely tied to opening crates or trading keys, but for the average user the Item Shop is just a slightly different way of letting you buy pretty explosions for your car. Randomization has been placed at the point of receipt rather than at time of opening, meaning you'll be able to decide up front whether you want to spend your premium credits on that set of wheels or just trade it to someone else who wants it.
If you still have keys and crates laying around in your inventory, they will be converted to Credits and Blueprints respectively, say Psyonix. Crate drops and key purchases were halted yesterday in preparation for today's changeover.
Rocket League's Blueprint Update today also marks the beginning of competitive season 13 and Rocket Pass 5. You can read more of Psyonix's detailed notes on Blueprints and the Item shop on the blog. You can also read the full update notes for the v1.7 patch.