Twitch and Blizzard Entertainment have entered into a partnership to bring Golden Loot Boxes in Overwatch to Twitch Prime and exclusive eSports content to Twitch according to a blog post from the streaming platform.
Golden Loot Boxes were originally discovered lurking in the game's code by data miners over at the /r/Overwatch subreddit. Users had speculated that it was probably a higher "tier" of loot box, and some wondered if it was going to represent a fundamental change in the game's loot system for the second Summer Games event. We now have concrete details about the Golden Loot Boxes straight from Blizzard themselves.
From June 20, 2017, until August 10, 2017, anyone who links their Amazon Prime and Twitch accounts (along with all active Twitch Prime members) will be eligible for a Golden Loot Box. These promotional boxes will have four items from the "Classic" collection (that is, no event items) and a guarantee of no duplicates and one Legendary item. Simply follow the instructions on this page (if you're in one of the handful of eligible countries) and you're all set! Players will also receive ten regular loot boxes dispersed in August and October 2017 as long as you have an active Twitch Prime membership at the time.
The Golden Loot Boxes will be a nice surprise for Twitch Prime customers, but an issue has been noted in the /r/Overwatch discussion thread for the latest patch where it's possible to receive the Officer D.Va or Oni Genji skins that were recently added in the patch as duplicates despite this guarantee. As users are reporting no other items being duplicates save for these two, it's probably safe to say that this is unintended behavior. As this is a bug, it may be best to wait to redeem your Golden Loot Box if you happen to get your hands on one.
Loot aside, Blizz and Twitch are teaming up to deliver eSports content exclusively through this particular streaming platform. Twitch.tv will be the official third-party streaming site for over 20 Blizzard tournaments for games including Hearthstone, World of Warcraft, Overwatch, and more. The full list of programs will consist of events in these categories:
- Heroes of the Storm Global Championship (HGC)
- StarCraft II World Championship Series (WCS Circuit)
- Hearthstone Championship Tour (HCT)
- Hearthstone Global Games (HGG)
- World of Warcraft Arena Championship
- Overwatch APEX League
- Overwatch Premier Series
What do you think of Blizzard and Twitch teaming up in a partnership for streaming tournaments? Do you hope to see other avenues to get Golden Loot Boxes in the future? What do you think of Overwatch's loot system overall? Let us know in the comments below!
