"What if you told me that this could all be traced back to the CEO of EA?" I honestly didn't even blink. I am 110% unsurprised.

Came for Andrew Wilson bashing, stayed for quality journalism.

"This game is a star wars themed online casino, designed to lure kids into spending money. It's a trap!" Well said Admiral!

"The Wilson Lootbox", I like the term. Let that greedy bastard's name be engraved in every gamers mind!

The "Wilson Lootbox". You know this is going to stick, right? It's going to become an official label for the modern wallet-rape system soon enough; the gaming community will see to it. Thank you so much for this video!

Can i just say, YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!! THIS IS THE TYPE OF JOURNALISM I LOVE OH MY GOD!!!! You're dedication, structure of your videos, and professionalism is just amazing. I absolutely love how you guide your audience so gracefully through the story. Keep up the great work man!

*I've been boycotting EA for over 5 years now, and I don't expect to ever give them 1$ again.*

Andrew wilson: the villain of the industry 80% of the industry wants this man expunged from reality, I blame none of them

Liked, shared, subscribed. I'm 30 years old now, and I've been a gamer since megaman 2 on the NES. I've watched greedy developers/publishers trash the industry over the last few years and I'm sick of it, so I've been doing what I can. This is probably the single most important video to watch if you actually want to hit these people right where it hurts. As always skillup, excellent work, the effort you put in here shows in spades.

Clips of Andrew Wilson's interviews and speeches creep me out because he looks like a stereotypical modern Bond villain. How has no one caught onto this?

Thank God EA stock is down 50%:)

The gaming industry would be better without EA.

holy shit the governor of Hawaii even managed to slip in a star wars meme in a discussion about star wars loot boxes. 10/10 good vote hawaii.

You're becoming one of my favorite gaming you tubers. Why? Because your videos are researched and constructed over time carefully until they are ready. You are substance over style and exactly what gaming on you tube needs more of.

watching this again at the end of 2019... everything is even worse...

Fast forward a few years and although EA's stock is tanking, they've completely removed lootboxes from their games, relying instead on surprise mechanics.

21:29 Gotta give that politician props. Talking about Star Wars in an official manner and still sneaks in the "It's a trap!" joke. Love it

Skill up is very quickly becoming my go-to for most gaming news because of his accurate and well researched content. He doesn't just yell at a screen about something he doesn't know, he sits and researches it. Well done, keep up the good content my dude

Hey Downward Thrust and Cleanprincegaming: This is what we mean by "video essay". Take note.

I personally have stopped buying and playing any game that includes pay to win style loot boxes. I don't care how popular the game is or who made it or how great people say it is. If it has this mechanic in it I don't play it.

*This video has (of course) been demonetised. If you'd like to support the work I do, the best way is through Patreon: **www.patreon.com/skillupyt* Btw, here is a link to the special artwork I got made for the the thumbnail- The Official Wilson Lootbox PNG. Spread it round: imgur.com/a/MAHsA :) Please keep up the fight against these bullshit loot boxes. Thanks for watching.

This is one of the best videos you ever made, hands down.

That prediction of Andrew Wilson losing his job as CEO of EA has sadly not yet come to fruition.

This video has aged like a very, very, fine wine.

Finally a fucking skill up video, laymen is just not enough Ralph

One of the best videos talking about the whole lootbox controversy I've seen in years. Well done Skill Up, well done. I'm glad I kept following you even after The Division's letdown. Than you.

Remember when unlocks were part of in-game achievements? Pepperidge Farm remembers...

Imagine being """"creative director"""" to the FIFA games franchise...

EA, it's in the *microtransactions*

This is why I come to SkillUp. Well researched, thorough pieces that thoughtfully analyze the state of the industry based on facts rather than speculation and rumour. Also, "post hoc, ergo propter hoc" took me back to the first season of West Wing.

Damn this video really needs more views, this is one the most important videos for gaming in our generation

Thank your for spending that much time to research and create this video. It's very helpful to get better understanding about the actual situation at the gaming industry and especially in EA. Great work keep it up!

I just want to say, that you did summarize everything very nice and explained it in a good and serious way. Despite other videos today, which are 30mins long for a thing that could be 2min long, in your video every second matters. Thanks for your effort and time sharing this with the world.

Thank you for this video Skill up. This is the journalistic, investigative style of yours Ive always admired. Nothing against you and your brothers show. But this is laser focus. And it is much needed. In the sense, that voice must be given to the worthy criticisms that this company and the industry have brought upon themselves. A voice calm with accurate analysis and reasoned deduction.

21:26 “It’s a trap” Did he mean to do that? 😂

I just stumbled across this video today, and I just wanted to say that you did a fantastic job. Great hypothesis, good understanding of data and trends, and a spot-on conclusion a year later. Bravo!

I love how the govenor say its a trap. lmfao seem to be a starwars fan himself. :D

We need to make the "Wilson Lootbox" a thing so this will stick with him through his lifetime. These people have no passion for games, just for money

21:30 legend really said "its a trap" related to a Star Wars game. I want him to be my president.

Just paused part-way to leave a comment on just HOW GOOD this video is. ~ I can follow it with little knowledge in the field, without it being patronising. ~ It’s clear, the sources are given & accessible to all. ~ Logic is sound... really good progression from a > b. ~ Useful graphics- not overdone. It’s a perfect presentation. Seriously, you should be proud of how well you communicate!

I absolutely never say this but this is undoubtably the most well written and edited video discussing the matter that there is on KZfaq. Exceptional content youve earned yourself a subscriber.

This is why Warframe is one of my new favourite games. This is also why I love indie games so much, there ARE good triple A titles, but whenever I play a good indie game I feel the passion that went into the making of said game. This? This is just a way to squeeze money out of people who just want a good time playing a damn game! Not some glorified slot machine!

Wow, only just came across this video - brilliant work puzzling this all out and presenting it in such an articulate way. Thank you!

Scary, but well done, Sir. Thank you for doing the research for this. Very enlightening.

Fantastic video, although I kinda wished you'd source your info where possible. Even just with links in the description. I did the legwork myself while watching during claims that I felt should be able to get tracked down and generally found the exact data referenced, so not saying what you're saying isn't true. But I think with sources added, this video becomes completely impossible to refute, even for the more sceptical people out there.

Andrew Wilson. Remember when he took over, people everywhere were optimistic he’ll change EA for the better? No matter who you are, you can always be a fuck up. That last part touched my heart, hope EA doesn’t survive in the future.

1. You've received a new subscriber, AND one who will be encourageing others to follow your channel. 2. You knocked it out of the park on the origins of how this all truly began, and am glad that other people out there realize this! Kudos, for enlightening them to it. 3. I can't remember what exact year it was of Madden. But, there was one year in particular (circa 2008-2012?) in which they literally had Snickers, Coca-Cola, and I think even McDonald's commercials in the middle of the game. Now, it wasn't like on KZfaq where it would stop the game and you'd have to sit through a commercial. Obviously logos were plastered all over the field and fences; but, what I'm talking about is during plays it would literally say things like "Snickers it satisfies" and other things of that nature. That was the last Madden game I played up until I think 2016 and I really haven't moved past it. Also, I noticed that what I just spoke of with the over-the-top advertisements, were cut completely from the follow-ups and I've never heard a word about it since. I don't know if it's been shuffled under the rug or what; but, if you did your top notch research as did hete. I'm sure you can find the one I'm speaking of. It was like a free to play mobile game, after paying $60. 4. What you said about Blizzard is spot-on, I don't hate cosmetic upgrades / loot boxes near as much as the other stuff...but we really do need to speak with our wallets! Blizzard just happened to be in the crosshairs at the time a majority of people started noticing that there was something amiss. Blizzard's real problem, is that the second their sales drop, they start virtue signaling and turn a character in their game homosexual. I mean, they literally rewrote their own lore to make Soldier 76 gay. the sexual identity of their characters literally has no bearing on the game or the game play, and it was just shoehorn in there for no reason. 5. Last but not least, in a bit of a reiteration (to those who are actually still reading this) we must speak with our wallets! No more pre-orders, no more season passes,, and support the companies that actually appreciate their customers and don't treat us like a whole bunch of sheep. I know a company's main point is to make money, But, EA is what happens when people who don't care about games and just see profit in them, get a hold of IPs. They ruin them, pander to the social justice crowd, and then think that single player games are a dying genre. They could not be more wrong! 6. I was born in 1980, I have a large backlog of games and patience goes a long way, especially if you stay one iteration behind everything. Let everyone else pay the full price and eventually you'll get it at half, or even free via game pass or Xbox games with gold for instance. Not to mention Steam has sales out the wazoo. 7. I'm not trying to hate on the young, but it seems like these tactics are geared exactly towards them; because, they don't understand the value of the dollar. Normally, they're not the ones actually paying for it, so they don't seem to understand how terrible loot boxes and DLC horse armor are! 8. I remember when DVD and Blu-ray first came out, and they tried director's cut and all that other garbage, and people didn't fall for it for long. 9. Comics and video games were the last bastion to fall to social justice warriors, propaganda, and the horror known as microtransactions (I say that with comics because, I wouldn't be surprised if they began selling alternate ending to graphic novels for a few extra bucks soon). 10. If it takes another gaming crash to change the way they conduct business, I'm fine with it. I have plenty of games to keep me entertained until then. And I don't have to pay an extra $5 to get a queen with my chess set.

Andrew Wilson is like Danny DeVito's Penguin: "I play this industry like a fiddle from hell!"

Um, excuse we dude. Loot boxes originated in WWII I was fucking there with my grandfather when a loot crate dropped right in the middle of the battle field and we got legendary and won WWII

"We didn't allow Joe Camel to encourage our kids to smoke cigarettes, and we won't allow Star Wars to encourage our kids to gamble." What a guy, that's possibly the best quote I've heard all year.

Absolutely fantastic work, Skill Up. Congratulations on giving people the much-needed knowledge to fight back.

Great video, really enjoyed this. Keep great videos like this coming!

Grofit. New Corpus boss in WF should be named andrew whoreson.

All right !! Someone send the terminator to 2007 !! You know what to do !!

I know this is a year old, but watching it now for the first time... wow! You're awesome man, loved your stuff on the division and I'll always be coming back for that quality content.

I love KZfaqrs like you who inform us about these greedy companies. Screw these game developers

SkillUp - "Wilson Lootbox" you know what you doing!! GJ.

Can't wait for the reactions when this guy dares to walk out on stage next E3.

“It’s a trap!” -State representative Chris Lee

Bro, you do amazing work. I love your videos: very professional and very clear to understand.

The Wilson Loot Box.

this is brilliant. look at that ratio. THE RATIO!!!!

Great job on this. I appreciate the amount of time and effort it must have taken to put all of this together. Keep up the good work.

This video is amazing. So much research and quality. Thank you

Your probably one of the most sophisticated and outgoing reviewers out there imo

Sooo glad you talked about this and gave FIFA the coverage on this topic that it deserves... not proud to admit as a kid, and through the 6 years of fifa I played, I definitely spent £1000-2000+ on packs on ultimate team, how it is any different to battlefronts loot crates, I dont really understand. I guess its just because star wars is a huge franchise and fifa players have become numb to this kind of practice by this stage.

"The only new release coming up for EA is Anthem" ... hmm, I wonder if EA will screw that one up too.

Incredible video. Nice work. I will share that around because it needs to be known

Such a well informed video. I'm glad you put so much effort into this.

This video might’ve been the best video you’ve ever made. Interesting from top to bottom... I’ve been following you since the first days of The Division and I absolutely love the shift in content. An extremely smart move on your part, especially since this channel was The Division focused (and that game on its last legs). GG, WP SkillUp. Keep up the great work!

god this was informative with good delivery to boot, no wonder this channel is so popular

Absolutely brilliant. Was hooked to my phone screen from start to finish. You've just got yourself a sub

Hey Skill-Up, old fan from The Division days, had a number of solid comment debates with you during the time, good times, glad to see you’re still doing your thing and still making high quality content

I don’t know what to say, this is THE video. I hope this trends. This is everything. The four factors I am angry at is pay-to-win, randomness,closed economic statistics(non tradable), and the pay wall of 60-80 dollars for a game and then grinding within that. This video explains everything or at least I inferred a lot from this video. The reason warframe and economies/games like it are well accepted is because it covers everything the way we want it. Open economy, get what you pay for,free-to-play, and the pay-to-win feature is fair and it is’t competitive like battlefront 2 or games like it. I came here for the warframe community but I stayed because you are amazing haha sorry for the long comment.

I’ve watched this amazing “documentary” about four times now. This is top notch @Skill up

Great video, great research! Well done for making this video, this is excellent reporting

I have been boycotting EA for years. They have been manipulating customers for a long time now. I miss some of the games they have done but i refuse to endorse being abused.

damn, best video I've seen about all this

this needs to be heard in the gaming community

More than a year later this is still very relevant. Great research and fantastic video!

Has this been posted to r/gaming? Does anyone know if it has or not? This *needs* more views. People *NEED* to see this.

Just wanted you to know this video is absolutely fantastic. Great writing, really well done pacing, fantastic research. I'm not even a video game person and yet I found myself absolutely fascinated this entire video. Amazing job!!!

Really impressive research. Great job!

Critical video! Nicely done

Outside of the US, Japanese game company Gungho Entertainment started selling what is effectively loot boxes in the MMO 'Ragnarok Online' directly to players as early as March 2006. They were called 'ラグくじ', or Ragnarok Lottery, and each box opened would give the player a random item in-game, including a chance at select super rare items. You could buy one for 300 yen, or 11 for 3000 yen. I haven't looked into it, but I feel it may be the first instance of direct loot box sales. Gungho later went on to be a mobile gaming juggernaut with their gatcha games, but 2006 was a year before android was even announced.

Still waiting for Disney to pull the IP from EA.

As long as the public keeps giving these companies money through these services, the companies will keep doing it. How do you convince millions of people to stop?

This video was a bit of an eye-opener for me. I now know why they released Fallen Order. They're scared. Battlefront 2 put attention on a scam they'd been pulling for years, and if FIFA attracts legislation... EA loses 90% of its profits instantly. I don't think it could survive that, and I think Andrew Wilson on some level knows that. They need people to stop paying attention to macro transactions, and FIFA, and appeasing people with a non-BS Star Wars game, as a symbolic gesture. I was surprised to hear that EA was the source of macro transactions. I shouldn't be, I was. Now I know.

You can actually see the greed in the eyes of EA executives and the CEO

Either a $60 game with very few or no micro transactions, or a free game with rather present micro transactions like Warframe and Paragon, however in Warframe and Paragon you can specify what you purchase, no roll of the dice, plus you can still earn the micro transaction currencies in both those games without even spending money. These games with their (necessity) Loot boxes just suck the life out of the industry as very clearly seen in the quoted "FIFA Ultimate Team makes us millions every year, where is this games version of that?" When they completely changed battlepacks from what they were in BF4 to making them loot boxes in BF1 I was livid, having played Battlefield for so long and really liking how battlepacks were introduced in BF4, they were loot boxes but you EARNED THEM, you weren't even allowed to buy them as far as I know, and you could get different kinds of battlepacks, like ones for specific guns that would drop random attachments for one weapon. I'd rather hire a hitman to put me down before I spend a penny on EA's anti-fun bullshit loot boxes

Please make more videos like this. This is amazing

Great video, love this kind of honest history

I hate you so much Skill Up. You are a part of a *very small* group of youtubers I watch that I could actually sit and be entertained, enthralled, and focused for *over 20 minutes* :l Why is your voice so damn good, why are you smart in the way you say things, *why is this channel not bigger?!* ... Ugh. You took up another 30-ish minutes of my life, and I don't want it back. Keep making amazing videos ... sorry I can't support you on patreon. I would if I could, believe me. Out of video-game commentary, It's hard to have me listen to (even a TV show) a video for more than 10 minutes, let alone 20+ ... But you deserve patreon support. I don't mean you "should" get it - I mean you *deserve* to get support for the stuff you do. *waits for the next great video* :3

I am never buying another EA title when they killed dead space my heart was broken.

Great content! However, I spotted one small misinformation at 8:49: It was Mass Effect 3 that implemented Loot Boxes - not Mass Effect 2, which relied on DLCs and, in fact, didn't even support Multiplayer Gaming.

Very informative. Thank you very much!

DAMN GOOD Investigative work! Skill Up taking this channel to all new F***ing level!!! Thank you for sharing this.

Hear hear! Wilson needs to go. Damaging the games industry and will soon cripple EA. Very sad man.

Excellent piece, top notch!

This video has aged incredibly well. This video went up in 2017, and then in 2019, EA are fighting for the right to continue implementing their “surprise mechanics” in their games. If loot boxes get banned outright in their games, I could see EA as a company collapse.