Psyonix, the San Diego-based game developer purchased a while ago by Epic Games, announced what's replacing loot boxes (which were named Crates in the game) in Rocket League.
According to Psyonix, the Blueprints system should provide greater transparency to users when they choose to buy something from the Item Shop. It's expected to go live by the end of the year.
Introducing Blueprints
A game update in December will introduce a new system called Blueprints. After you play a match of Rocket League, you’ll have a chance to obtain a Blueprint; a new type of drop that will replace Crates. When you receive a Blueprint, it will show you exactly what item you can create from it, for a set price. Once they're in your inventory, Blueprints will allow you to pay to create the item it offers and receive it immediately; or you can leave it in your inventory and choose to create the item later.
Like the Crate items that preceded them, Blueprints can drop with special attributes like Painted, Certified, and Special Editions.
Item Shop and Credits
There's more than just Blueprints coming to Rocket League. In the same game update in December, we’ll be introducing a new rotating Item Shop. The Item Shop will offer a wide variety of content including new items, legacy Crate content you might have missed out on, and the long-awaited debuts of items like the Titanium White Dominus. Important note: Item Shop purchases will be bound to your account and cannot be traded.
Items from Blueprints and the Item Shop will be obtained by Credits, our new premium currency replacing Keys. You’ll use Credits to create items from Blueprints, upgrade to Rocket Pass Premium, and buy content from the Item Shop. Esports Tokens will be separate from Credits, and will be the only way to purchase items from the Esports Shop.
There is a lot more to reveal about the Item Shop and we at Psyonix will share more about it in the coming months.
The Great Crate Conversion
Once the new Blueprint system does go live, your Keys will automatically be converted into Credits the first time you log into Rocket League. Each remaining Crate you have will be converted into a Blueprint of the same series.
But before Blueprints go live later this year, the Vindicator Crate will come to Rocket League this Thursday, October 3. This is the final Crate and it will feature the new Sentinel Battle-Car and Neuro-Agitator Goal Explosion. Get a sneak peek at the Sentinel Battle-Car below:
Additional details about how other items will convert to the Blueprint system will be shared in the next few months.
Trade-Ins
Changes are coming to our Trade-In system that we want to message well in advance. When Blueprints go live and replace our paid Crates, we will also disable the ability to use paid content with our current Trade-In system.
More specifically, this means that items obtained from Blueprints, the Item Shop, or legacy content acquired from Crates cannot be traded in after these changes go live. We also plan to implement an updated inventory management feature that will allow you to archive items that you don't want to see in your active list of customization items.
This change will not impact your ability to trade in our free post-game drops.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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