Belgian Minister of Justice Koen Geens wants to ban the sale of games with loot boxes.
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Barry J
I hope this happens not knowing what your purchasing in a game is a joke, I don't trust game publishers who are to money focused and don't see a problem with this type of system,
a law will stop games heading in this direction they should stick with DLC in purchased games as in adding more to the game for those who want it and not effecting those who don't.
If a game is Free then I am fine with pay to win and in game purchases to progress through the game.( I don't purchased this type of game to costly) but when you purchase a full priced game you have already given your money to play the game and should only pay more to do more.
cryohellinc
https://media.giphy.com/media/26BGuSXQAAwcOj3sA/giphy.gif
fOrTy_7
Thank you Dice for briging a doom (or at least a chance of it) to loot boxes.
After Battlefield 1 fiasco and now this you definitelly lost a client.
@Barry J: The article doesn't say anything about micro-transactions in general, it only mentions loot boxes. So micro-transactions in games like GTA V where you can buy 8 million of GTA$ for like 60€, for which you can only buy one or two premium in-game items is still possible, because 'you know what you're buying in advance'.
Personally, I think that sooner or later market (that means us gamers) will corrects this.
There were larger backlashes for smaller reasons, e.g. OpenVI ban. I think people will eventually get so pissed off over this, that there will be consequenses even for biggest publishers. Gamers just need to unite and hit them when it hurts, that is their wallets.
lucidus
lol ... I hope WB and EA get fucked royally.
ATOJAR
I wonder how this would work with the likes of FIFA points? I mean technically you know that your buying FIFA points, you know how many you are going to get for your money so technically this isn't gambling. You then you use them FIFA points to buy FIFA packs, these essentially are loot-boxes ... Right? As you dont know what you are going to get. But you can only buy the FIFA packs with FIFA points and you can only buy FIFA points with real money.
I mean once you have bought them say 15,000 FIFA points with real money you are then gambling with in-game currency and not real money but you are forced to buy FIFA points with real money in the first place.
Stormyandcold
The way I see this working out is it'll all revert back to a shop system, where you know exactly what you want and only buy what you wanted. Then, the next "backlash" will be the cost of certain in-game items.
Now, what would be really cool (like on the level of ppi) is if they forced the companies to refund all monies that's been spent on loot box systems. Now that would send a shockwave through the industry.
CK the Greek
At least BY LAW "banning" the idea for micro transactions without knowing what you get is the right step for gaming industry, yeah it IS a stop for future marketing from game developers/publishers. Ofc no one can stop the "pay for better stuff" when you know what you are paying for, though at least that they won't make it a "must" in the future so players vs players who pay for gettting better stuff won't be day vs night.
However..will this law be established worldwide or in few regions or even worst few countries..?
AlmondMan
evildave-
While i dislike microtransactions very much, i think regulation is not the right answer. People should just be smarter and do not use them or ignore games utilizing them altogether.
Regulators usually do not understand industry internals very well, ending up making life for developers harder. It can make legitimate use of lootboxes impossible, among other things.
cryohellinc
Texter
You'd think simply debating it's illegal at such a high level would be enough of a hint for publishers to abandon this practice.
RooiKreef
Looks like time is running out for game developers like EA. It's about damn time!!!
Ricepudding
Should we thank EA and Dice for being so greedy they have now doomed that XD
Seriously this is a good thing, loot boxes are and always will be gambling. to say anything otherwise is a lie. Loot boxes have actually made me miss Season pass, at least then you knew what you was going to get... (and normally cost a lot less than loot boxes, some of them are like 25 boxes for £39.99) that's more than most full priced games let alone season passes...
H83
Backstabak
spectatorx
This means counter strike global offensive is going to be banned as well. Thank you minister.
Angantyr
I so hope they escalate this to the European council and win, I am so sick of mobile gaming mechanics being put into games everywhere.
It might have been Star Wars Battlefront 2 that burst the lootbox bubble, but there are so many titles that are worse. I refunded Need for speed Payback the first time I reached the reward screen; Spoiler: "NFS Payback roulette reward"
fantaskarsef
Like this will ever hit the real parliament and be passed. They probably could not sell a single current multiplayer title anymore.
Dwwolf
Completely ridiculous.
These are clearly digital analogs to physical goods that have been sold for decades.
Trading cards, game cards.
Is the good minister going to ban the sale of Pokemon or Magic the Gathering foil packages?
Clearly he is not.
Angantyr
And it also just hit the news that The State Of Hawaii Investigating EA For "Predatory Practices"
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