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EAremoved paid loot boxes from their
games altogether to avoid legal
action. Not everyone went down
without a fight, however; in May
2018, EA issued a statement that
the loot boxes featured in the FIFA
games did not constitute gambling,
which led to a lawsuit from the
Belgian Gaming Commission, and
ended with EA removing FIFA’s
microtransaction-driven Ultimate
Team packs in January this year.
The Netherlands has also issued
similar rulings, and both nations
have called for other members of
the European Union to examine and
regulate loot boxes. Meanwhile, the
Australian government conducted
a study in 2018 into the effects of
loot boxes on children, concluding
that they are a form of targeted
gambling and should require an R
rating on games that include them.THE BATTLE CONTINUES
Some countries have yet to take
action on loot boxes, although the
cogs are starting to turn. The UK
Gambling Commission recently
ruled (for a second time) that loot
boxes do not constitute actual
gambling, because the rewards
cannot be monetized—a commondefense from publishers when
looking at loot boxes. This doesn’t
always ring true, however. While
games such as Overwatch do not
include trading functions or any
real assignable “value” to loot
box rewards, other games—such
as Valve’s Team For tr e s s 2—do,
enabling the effective monetization
of items received from loot boxes.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is
one somewhat infamous example
here. Some weapon skins are worth
a lot of money in the game’s player-
driven economy. The extremely
rare AWP Dragon Lore skin is
currently worth around $1,500, and
it’s not uncommon for CS:GO skins
to reach above $10,000 in value.
Following a call from the
International Game Developers
Association, US policy makers
have started to pay attention, too.
Missouri Senator Josh Hawley is
one of the biggest proponents,
putting forward his “Protecting
Children from Abusive Games Act”
(a bit wordy, but keep it up, Josh)
earlier this year. He claims that
loot boxes “prey on user addiction”
and work by “extracting profits
from fostering compulsive habits,”
with a goal of ultimately banningloot boxes from games that are
marketed at children. This definition
is fairly vague, however, not putting
any onus on parents to regulate
the games their kids play. Instead,
it’s targeting any game rated lower
than “adults only,” taking aim at a
vast section of the games industry.
The industry seems to be aware
of the noose tightening around its
neck. The Entertainment Software
Association recently announced
that a number of major publishers,
including Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft, and
Nintendo, will be fully publishing the
odds of getting different rewards
from loot boxes in their games.
Other upcoming games, such as
Halo Infinite, have received acclaim
for stating that there will be no loot
box features, while some are going
further and removing paid loot
boxes altogether, as seen recently
in Rocket League and Heroes of
the Storm. These moves toward
transparency might appear to some
as a halfway house for the industry
and regulating bodies; others claim
it is an alarm bell signaling the
beginning of the death of all loot
boxes. Only time will tell, but one
thing’s certain: We won’t be sad to
see the loot box go.the death of the loot box