At a recent meeting of the UK Parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Electronic Arts and the rest of the AAA industry has found itself in hot water with gamers again this week. SNP’s Brendan O’ Hara posed a question to the assembled reps of the games industry and MPs concerning loot boxes and
Loot boxes, long a source of frustration and addiction for some gamers, have become an increasingly problematic system for publishers and developers as well. Despite earning billions of dollars collectively for the games which include them, loot boxes are a font of anger and litigation as more public pressure mounts against the mechanics, which many
Loot boxes, the bane of wallets and consumer-conscious gamers across the globe, and then combined with EA, the company gamers love to hate, the combination is as toxic as the most nightmarish garbage fire. One can’t talk about these two issues without wading into the muck of opinions and factual information that seems to swirl
As anyone who has been following the gaming industry knows, the last few months have been very contentious when it comes to the subject of loot boxes. Loot boxes are essentially a mechanic of putting games of random chance into “loot boxes” to make money. And with multiple countries having either promised or delivered on
Turn 10 is finally removing loot boxes from Forza Motorsport 7 in November after sustained player feedback turned public opinion against the system. And while the racing game was well-received since it’s release, there’s been one thing that gamers and fans consistently disliked. The Driver Crates system in the game wasn’t a true loot box,
Dutch outlets including Metro and Nieuwsblad reported earlier today that the Belgian Gaming Commission may be pursuing legal action against some game companies over their refusal to follow the law.
In a recent forum announcement, Blizzard has revealed that they’ve made some major changes to Overwatch and Heroes of the Storm. These games will no longer feature loot boxes in certain countries thanks to ongoing legislative pressure over gambling mechanics. The two countries in particular, Belgium and the Netherlands, made regulatory pressure and impending legal
Forza Motorsport 7 is removing their version of loot boxes in a few months, and Forza Horizon 4 will drop paid tokens. Prior to these incoming changes, these games used a premium currency called CR, or Credits, that they could earn through playing the game, and then spend the CR on loot crates that held
France may soon take action against loot boxes, and they’re not alone. An analysis of the French report courtesy of media law associate Sebastian Schwiddessen has helped push the issue of loot boxes and gambling in video games back to the forefront. The ARJEL’s response is pushing for a vote on what course of action
Even though other countries like the US and UK have trouble classifying loot boxes, that doesn’t appear to be an issue in Belgium. The investigation looked at Star Wars Battlefront 2, FIFA 18, Overwatch and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, finding only that Battlefront 2 weren’t in violation because that title had removed loot boxes. The justification
Three game companies, including free-to-play giant Nexon, have been penalized by South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission over the use of loot boxes. Nexon, NextFloor and Netmarble have been fined a total of around $1 million over deceptive in-game item sales, mostly focusing on loot boxes. The lion’s share of the burden falls on Nexon, who
Some of you may remember that the ESRB infamously said that video game loot boxes are no different to booster packs in collectible card games. They made that distinction to justify no labeling of loot boxes in games they rated. Now, the ESRB is apparently backpedaling slightly and allowing games to be classified for “in-game
According to a Rolling Stone report, during the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing, US Senator Maggie Hassan educated committee members on the dangers of loot boxes and also issued a letter to the ESRB President Patricia Vance. Even though the ESRB has previously said they have no issue with loot boxes, this new wave
Hawaii is one of the first US states to make moves against loot boxes and gambling in gaming. Rep. Chris Lee has led an action that introduced multiple bills to the state legislature. The bills tackle the problem on multiple fronts. First of all, they propose prohibiting the sale of a game to anyone under
In a segment on Swedish Radio P3 News this morning talking about FIFA Ultimate Team, Swedish minister for public administration Ardalan Shekarabi hinted that loot boxes are being considered as gambling in Sweden. This comes in the same week as German regulators begin considerations on how to classify loot boxes. Sweden is working on regulations that
Electronic Arts had it’s Q3 financials call earlier today and things weren’t pretty. A major shortfall in sales numbers of Star Wars Battlefront II is being blamed on consumer backlash against EA and its predatory gambling practices, AKA Loot boxes. EA has revised their forecast to expect Battlefront II’s sales to hit its original 10-11
The loot box disaster that has imploded all over the gaming scene these last few months just got more complicated. New Zealand’s Gambling Compliance office of its Department of Internal Affairs has stated its position on the matter. In a letter to Gamasutra, the department has stated that loot boxes “do not meet the definition of gambling”.
Take-Two president Karl Slatoff was on-hand to talk about the publisher’s work and touched on the latest loot box controversy sparked by Star Wars Battlefront 2. Unsurprisingly, Slatoff sits firmly in the same camp as ESA/ESRB which does not deem loot boxes to be gambling. “The whole gambling regulator thing, we don’t view that sort of
As loot boxes continue to come under scrutiny from various legal bodies, a member of the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation (VCGLR) in Australia has stated that – at least in Victoria – loot boxes are considered a form of gambling. With both Belgium and the Netherlands both making efforts to investigate gambling
The discussion on loot boxes continues this week as multiple nations weigh in on the issue. Not only have both Belgium and The Netherlands launched official investigations into the matter, legislators in the US state of Hawaii have announced intent to address the problem of loot boxes. Star Wars Battlefront 2 made headlines when it
Earlier this week, we reported on a move by the Belgian Gaming Commission to investigate lootboxes in games like Star Wars Battlefront 2 to determine whether they constitute games of chance to the degree that they require regulation meant for gambling. Now it appears the Dutch have joined in. The debate over loot boxes often
As originally reported by VTM (via Gamasutra), the general director of the the Belgian Gaming Commission, Peter Naessens, told the local news outlet the commission is investigating whether the loot box mechanisms used in Battlefront 2 and Overwatch should be branded as gambling. The raging debate over loot boxes, and whether they should be considered
As Capcom is banking on Monster Hunter: World to be the first major success in the west for the franchise, they’re taking notes on what western publishers are doing right and wrong. One thing that various members of the team have addressed is the concerns over loot boxes in Monster Hunter: World. Series producer Ryozo
Daniel Zeichner, Labour MP for Cambridge, has submitted two questions with regards to loot boxes and whether they can be deemed as gambling Ove the last several months, a debate has been raging over loot boxes. Not over whether the odds were fair, but whether the mechanics were manipulative enough to be considered gambling. The
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