Monster Hunter World Won't Include Microtransactions or Loot Boxes

A new interview with the producer of Monster Hunter World has officially confirmed that players won't encounter a need or offer for loot boxes or micro-transactions during play. The recent trend in gaming to include purchase options to enhance gameplay experience has come under serious fire, but anyone fearing the same for the massive world of the latest Monster Hunter franchise entry, fear no longer.

Producer Ryozo Tsujimoto recently sat down with Trusted Reviews to talk about the concept of microtransactions, and the fact that his team has no interest in including them, mainly because, to them, it simply doesn't make sense. "This is a co-op game and you're going out in up to four-people parties," said Tsujimoto. "The idea is that there's a harmony in the four players going out and you're going to get on well together. If you feel someone hasn't earned what they've got or they've got a better weapon just because they paid for it and you worked for yours, that creates friction. Even in a co-op game where it's not pay-to-win, because we're all on the same team, it's like you didn't earn that or you've got it and don't know how to use it. We don't want that for Monster Hunter."

Evening out the playing field has been difficult for triple-A titles that are generally set up these days to make a steady profit after release due to add-ons and DLCs. "There are absolutely no plans, it's not in the game where you can get your random crate or random loot box and get a great item or great weapon," Tsujimoto explains. "None of the stuff that affects the gameplay is even paid for; it's all cosmetic, just stuff that's a bit of fun. We want to make sure nobody is under the impression that, because it looks like the kind of game where you might have loot boxes, they definitely aren't in there."

The sense of integrity and honesty in Tsujimoto's words is one that seems a little less present in an industry that is ever-changing when it comes to nailing down profit points. Tsujimoto concluded with a wonderful summary of why challenging the a player to earn their way to success is the very core of a video game's job. "We want people to just enjoy our great gameplay loop of achievement satisfaction where there are tough challenges, but learning how to play the game and getting better at it, you'll be able to overcome those challenges. We want you to go in and, through gameplay, find out what's causing you to hit this hurdle and figure it out. Whenever you get over that hurdle by yourself, it's such a great feeling, why would we let you skip that just to make a bit of extra money? It doesn't make any sense. There's no way we would interrupt that flow." Respect.

Monster Hunter World releases for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on January 24th.