10 Video Games Where Consumers WON

Microtransactions and lootboxes tend to be most prominent in multiplayer games, with the likes of Grand Theft Auto Online and EA's FIFA games (now EA Sports FC) earning millions annually from the practice. They're almost universally reviled, however, micro-transactions can be considered a necessary evil, since online titles must maintain a constant income to stay financially viable - with paid expansions fragmenting the playerbase and more online games releasing free updates instead.

But since Middle-earth: Shadow of War incorporated loot crates into the single-player mode, it reeked of desperation, especially since its predecessor, Shadow of Mordor, didn't utilise this reviled mechanic.

Not only that, this Tolkien adaptation encouraged pay-to-win gameplay, since the last section relies on an unbearable amount of grinding. Unless players emptied their wallets, they couldn't build up a strong enough army to win the main campaign. Thanks to the unreliable reward system, players couldn't guarantee they would receive anything useful, no matter how much money they spent. (Considering Shadow of Mordor centres around a greed-inducing ring, you'd think someone working on the project would've seen the irony.)

Due to the public outrage, Monolith Productions and Warner Bros. Games removed all microtransactions from Middle-earth: Shadow of War less than a year later. To truly make amends, the developers threw in a revised epilogue, modified gameplay, new powers, and an Endless Mode.