The great Star Wars debacle - and I'm not talking about The Last Jedi's second act here - dominated video game headlines in the last quarter of 2017. But in truth the year was packed with depressing stories about loot boxes, so many in fact that it has at times felt like our beloved hobby was more about the chance to win a rare item than it was about the chance to play.

It all began with For Honor, Ubisoft's excellent but troubled melee combat game. Soon after For Honor came out in February, a redditor worked out how much money it would cost to unlock all 12 heroes in the game and their associated aesthetic items (2017 would see enterprising redditors work out how much things cost to unlock in a lot of games). It turned out it would cost an eye-watering 585. Ouch.

Ubisoft, sensing a growing resentment among players (growing resentment was a running theme of 2017), said it never intended for players to unlock everything in the game. That was a PR line that didn't go down well (PR lines that didn't go down well was another running theme of 2017).

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Apple, in what may be a trend-setting decision, now requires any App Store game with loot boxes to disclose the odds of receiving items from them.

"Apps offering 'loot boxes' or other mechanisms that provide randomised virtual items for purchase must disclose the odds of receiving each type of item to customers prior to purchase," a bullet point added to the 3.1.1 in-app purchase clause now reads (via TouchArcade).

Forcing disclosure of odds is something China has required all games to do, by law, since May. It's how we learned Overwatch awards an epic item once every 5.5 loot boxes and a legendary once every 13.5 loot boxes.

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With Star Wars: Battlefront 2 taking all the current flak for having loot boxes, it's a good time for fellow loot box controversy candidate Middle-earth: Shadow of War to detail all of its upcoming freebies.

Alongside the three DLCs coming as part of Shadow of War's season pass, various new features will be implemented for free over the next few weeks.

First up are Endless Sieges, which as previously announced arrive on 21st November.

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