Games with micro transactions will get a label in North America

The American Entertainment Software Rating Board will stamp a logo onto games with microtransactions and/ or other in-game purchases. The In-Game Purchases logo is placed on physical packaging and at download stores.

The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is an American self-regulatory organization that assigns age and content ratings to consumer video games. The new label is a direct reaction towards the outcry over loot crate systems in games like Star Wars: Battlefront II, Need for Speed: Payback and Destiny 2and have signaled a willingness to legislate them, reports polygon.

The labeling will “be applied to games with in-game offers to purchase digital goods or premiums with real-world currency,” the ESRB said in a news release this morning, “including but not limited to bonus levels, skins, surprise items (such as item packs, loot boxes, mystery awards), music, virtual coins and other forms of in-game currency, subscriptions, season passes and upgrades (e.g., to disable ads).”

The label will appear separate from the familiar ESRB rating label (T-for-Teen, M-for-Mature, etc.) and not inside it. Additionally, the ESRB has begun an awareness campaign meant to highlight the controls available to parents whose households have a video game console. The label is not designed to warn adult gamers that a game might contain microtransactions; it’s designed for concerned parents buying games for their kids. “Parents need simple information,” Vance said. “We can’t overwhelm them with a lot of detail... We have not found that parents are differentiating between these different mechanics.”