So, the
international lootbox controversy continues.
If you're
not in the know, a rising trend in recent years in the video game
industry has been to sell players so called lootboxes. In benign
situations, these boxes are awarded for free in-game, and only
contain cosmetic items. No game changing content at all.
But, in
many games, these boxes have essentially replaced progression.
Instead of being given some kind of increase in ability or equipment
designed to be fun and fair, you get boxes of random stuff. Stuff
that are completely game changing if you are lucky. To make matters
worse, unscrupulous developers and publishers also sell these boxes
for real money. Not in-game money, but actual dollars and cents,
giving players who are willing and able to wave their credit cards
around an unbeatable advantage.
This is
the short version, it goes much deeper, but for the purpose of this
post, this is what you need to know.
Now, in
the past year, governments and legislative bodies have noticed the
fury of players sickened and outraged by these business practices.
Especially when the words “Gambling” and “Children” started
being bandied around.
The
problem is that in many games you can win rare in-game items, items
that can then be sold off to other players for real money, even up to
thousands of dollars. Again, that's actual dollars and euros. And
unless their parents are paying attention, children are doing this.
It began
small, with Belgium. Belgium went to far as to deem these lootboxes
as illegal gambling and banned them on penalty of heavy fines and
potential jail time. The AAA game publishers recoiled in horror but
complied. All except Electronic Arts (EA). They refused to give up
their supreme cash-cow, FIFA 18 (with 19 on the way). EA claimed
that they don't agree with the interpretation of the law, and kept on
selling in-game stuff for real money. Belgium wasn't too happy and
are now dragging EA kicking and screaming to court. If Belgium wins
(and I hope they do), EA could be fined about $1.8 million or so, and
someone could be going to prison. We'll see how that goes.
But our
saga does not end there. My native country of Finland has also jumped
into the fray. The Finnish police are now investigating if these
lootboxes are breaking the law. In Finland you must
have a license from the government to run anything even remotely
gambling related. My information might be a little outdated, but at
least it used to be that if your club or school wanted to run a
lottery for whatever prizes you had, and the tickets cost real money,
you had to get the approval of the police. So I can understand why
the police are looking into this.
But
wait, there's more.
A
panel of experts in Australia has decided that this kind of system of
lootboxes are absolutely gambling and now, 15 countries and the U.S.
State of Washington are scrutinizing the disgusting little boxes. The
countries are:
Austria
Czech
Republic
France
Gibraltar
Ireland
Isle
of Man
Jersey
Latvia
Malta
The
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Spain
UK
If
even a few of the bigger countries come down against lootboxes with
the same kind of penalties as Belgium, then the AAA publishers are
screwed. Their golden geese are slaughtered and it's all their own
faults. The standard excuse is that it's too expensive to
make games these days, but many
many developers are managing it just fine without predatory
micro-transactions. Imagine if the car industry did the same. You buy
a car, but there are no seats and the roof is a net. All because it's
too expensive to make cars. Yeah right.
As
the drama unfolds, I'll be talking about it here. And until next
time, have a great week!
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