This is what Call of Duty: WWII loot boxes falling from the sky looks like

Something a little unusual about the loot boxes in Call of Duty: WWII, as reported in August by Game Informer (via Charlie Intel), is that players will be eligible to win in-game rewards simply for watching other people open them. A brief video uploaded to the Call of Duty subreddit yesterday demonstrates how that system will work.

Players will be able to call in supply crates while at Headquarters, the 48-player social space on Normandy beach. The crate will then drop out of the sky, the top will fly off, and three cards will pop out. Other players will see the cards and what they deliver, but apparently won't be able to swipe them. Presumably the crates will not unintentionally pancake any nearby players, although it would be pretty amazing if they did.

I won't make the predictable joke about the historical accuracy of these loot box drops (sorry, Eurogamer), but I will say that it reminds me an awful lot of this, including the nigh-inevitable outcome: You get a hat and then some dick hiding behind a tree shoots you.

Call of Duty: WWII will be out on November 3. We'll have a more in-depth Call of Duty: WWII loot box explainer, and the opening salvo of our review-in-progress, up for your reading pleasure tomorrow.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.