Loot Crate now sells indie games in a new blind box subscription service

Five games, starting at $10 per month

Loot Crate has positioned itself as one of the leaders of games and games-adjacent merchandise. But there’s a catch to the whole system. Loot Crate sells mystery items. It’s a monthly subscription service where you’re usually never sure what you’re going to get.

Now, Loot Crate is getting into selling actual games but it’s keeping the model that it’s most well-known for. Mostly, anyway.

Loot Play is a new monthly subscription service for indie games. On the 17th of each month, subscribers will receive five PC games that are redeemable on Steam. One of them will be revealed beforehand; the other four are complete surprises. (For instance, Crossing Souls is the announced game for October.) Loot Play runs $10 per month for anyone who signs up for a full year. It’s $12 per month for anyone who’s enrolled on a month-to-month basis.

Loot Crate isn’t working alone to make this happen. There’s a partnership with Chrono.gg, which is a company that sells one indie game per day at a discount. It’s ostensibly the Woot of video games.

Thinking more broadly, this could very well signal Loot Crate’s interest in expanding into more digital content. Loot Crate’s Erik Reynolds says “Loot Play will be Loot Crate’s first digital subscription product and will open the door for the company to continue its growth through digital offerings, redefine collecting and explore the relationship fans have with content.” From Loot Crate’s perspective, it makes sense for a business that relies on moving mass quantities of physical products to want to test the waters of a side-venture with little in the way of logistics overhead.