RIP free Hextech Chests: “We believe a change like this, while unpopular, is the right call.”

The League of Legends teans have given players an update on the Hextech Chests situation. In a newly-released video, Andrei "Meddler" van Roon and Paul "Pabro" Bellezza shared some insights about the decision to make them no longer free and how this is related to the business side of League of Legends. Read on for the latest Hextech Chests update.

In the League of Legends Season 1 update, Meddler acknowledged that Riot Games introduced free Hextech Chests to reward players for their time. However, over time, these chests became the main way players unlocked skins. While this created a great player experience, it made direct skin purchases less appealing, according to Meddler. This also made Hextech Chests unsustainable for League of Legends.

"Free chests unintentionally became the primary way to unlock skins, and an increasing number of players ended up with substantial skin collections for free," Meddler said. "This meant that purchasing skins directly didn't make sense anymore to a lot of players because they were happy just waiting to get something eventually. That did lead to a great player experience, but it was not sustainable for League in the long term."

Pabro continued, explaining that they reassessed the game's reward system to ensure the aforementioned long-term sustainability goal. The team wanted to balance free skin rewards without returning to the time when none were earned through play time at all. He added that exploring new cosmetics and increasing skin production helped, but the team ultimately needed to reduce free skins to maintain the game's business model.

"Increasing the number of skins we can make each year was good for both the business and the player experience, but eventually, we ran into meaningful, diminishing returns," Pabro explained, adding how Riot Games introduced premium cosmetics and explored other cosmetic types. "But champion skins are clearly the thing most of you care about more than anything else when it comes to cosmetics, and obviously, adding pay-for-power content is a non-starter for us."

No. At the end of the Hextech Chests segment, Meddler reiterated that the Hextech Chest update is for the sake of League of Legends' sustainability. "We want to ensure League remains that great, fully free-to-play game," he said. "We believe a change like this, while unpopular, is the right call and allows us to deliver not just on our plans today, but also our plans for League in the future."

League of Legends players are not happy about the latest update. Several hours after the video went live on YouTube, it received about 17,000 dislikes and 5,000 likes. Similar sentiments are echoed on X and the League of Legends subreddit in terms of the Hextech Chests decision.

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