Lootboxes are bad for developers

Screenshot from the game I can't believe it's not gambling a game parodying the bullshit of the AAA industry.

So in an earlier piece I talked about how loootboxes can often make a game worse and I said at the end that they aren't helping keep the door open for developers. I'm here now to say lootboxes are actively harmful to developers. 

The claim bounded about is that lootboxes help support the studio and that helps keep people employed. Well all EA and Activision's lootboxes, oh sorry "Surprise Mechanics" didn't manage to keep people employed at either of the two with EA laying off people and so did Activision . It would be nice to think that at these big AAA publishers that you supporting them by buying lootboxes is somehow helping keep some poor developer in a job. This is not the case.

In reality a lot of lootbox money goes to support the overblown salaries ofmajor CEOs or into vast dragon hordes in offshore tax havens that the AAA game industry loves. In an industry that is forever trying to get more money, to make every last bit they can, a common tactic to cut costs is to cut employees. There's a reason companies have been on about transitioning to "live services" the simple reason being they don't need as many developers to pump out some new skins and emotes every few months as they would to have developers actually making new products. Less games being made and more "live service" titles means they can cut the staffing requirements from a team of between 30 and multiple thousands to a team of 3-10 who just pump out skins and other items to pack lootboxes with. Live services need less people to maintain and due to trying to get whales from lootboxes you get the massive return from exploiting people with addictive personalities along with the low costs of having to employ less people. Lootboxes mean major AAA companies can get more money employing less people, and you're trying to tell me that's good for developers? An industry that can reduce the number of jobs open making it harder for developers to find work is good for them? An industry where there is already serious issues of exploitation of workers desperate to keep their jobs is good for the workers? It's good for workers to be worked to the point of having to go off sick with stress?

The entire myth that Lootboxes are good for developers comes from the idea that it provides more consistent revenue for a company over time. You know what else would provide that? Making a good game that stands the test of time and people will want to experience, not a multiplayer live service game that lives and dies based on it having enough population and when it's population drops too much there's no reason for it to keep selling.

Lootboxes mean less games being made which means less developers are needed to be kept employed and the AAA industry can and will happily exploit the developers who are employed by making them feel privileged to have their jobs and that if they don't comply with the long hours beyond their contracted ones and other bullshit they will lose said jobs.