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 the age of 21 where there are randomised loot boxes that require payment. All games with loot boxes would also have to be labeled to show they included microtransactions and the odds of the rewards would also have to be disclosed.
While this will inevitably face opposition from the gaming industry due to the prospect of lost sales, there is a certain point where it needs to be done to send a message. Mega-publsihers and the AAA industry are seemingly becoming increasingly reliant on terrible loot box systems. And it seems like the only way for it to stop is for people to get angry enough to make the AAA industry pay a serious penalty.
With gaming companies making billions off of these gambling mechanics, there’s no telling how hard they’ll fight to continue implementing these predatory systems. Keep your eyes peeled for more happenings like this.
