Lost Ark Ditches Pay-to-Win Skins After Backlash

Lost Ark creators Smilegate RPG and Amazon Games announced plans not long ago to add a new consumable which would bring with it skins that came with stat bonuses. Dubbed "Yoz's Jar," this announcement had a lot of things going against it given that the skins awarded by using the consumable were random with reroll elements also at play. That's enough to result in backlash on its own, but once you affix stat bonuses to the skins, it's easy to see why players weren't fans. Unsurprisingly, Amazon announced this week that Yoz's Jar and its associated skins are no longer happening.

Yoz's Jars would've been added to the in-game store for players to purchase and could then be used to acquire either an Epic or Legendary skin. Both skin categories had stats attached to them with Legendary ones naturally yielding better results. Compounding that dubious system was the fact that skins could be broken down into a new resource to then acquire another new skin, but there was no guarantee that one would be better than what you had before.

"If you have a skin you don't like or wear anymore (or maybe one from Yoz's Jar you're not a fan of) you can break it down for 'Cloth,' which can be used with a Jar to roll a new skin from a determined list," Amazon said in the blog post shared at the start of June. "This new cosmetic system will also give a chance to acquire Legendary skins, which provide better benefits than Epic skins. No worries if you like an older skin more than the looks of your new Legendary one with bigger bonuses, you can 'Overlay' the skin you like over the Legendary skin!"

In a more recent post, Amazon said these Epic and Legendary skins would provide "1% and 2% Strength/Dexterity/Intelligence, respectively" and that they would've been available for Crystals and within the player-to-player market. Amazon predicted these would've gone for "very high Gold prices" and that it would've been difficult for players to acquire a Legendary skin let alone a matching set. Regardless, the idea's been scrapped, though Amazon didn't indicate whether it might make a return in the future.

"We didn't want players to feel that the skins found in Yoz's Jar were necessary for gameplay, especially if gated by a significant monetary or in-game currency barrier, which is why we've decided to remove Yoz's Jar and the skins from the Wrath of the Covetous Legion Update," Amazon said. "Flexibility and fairness to players have always been driving forces in the partnership between our teams as we work to ensure that players are able to enjoy and play Lost Ark however they see fit."