Gaming and Gambling

[Pseudonym]

The gambling authorities from 15 European countries (including the UK, France, Poland and Spain) and Washington state have made a statement regarding gaming. So far they have not committed to anything specifically (as they are bound by national law) but they will be giving games a lot more scrutiny. They say: "Concerns in this area have manifested themselves in controversies relating to skin betting, loot boxes, social casino gaming and the use of gambling themed content within video games available to children." This might lead to policy or law proposals, court cases or other types of intervention in the future.

So far Belgium and the Netherlands have banned all or some lootboxes respectively and Finland was looking into doing the same. China has decided that the odds of winning certain loot must be made public. This time around, the civil servants primarily responsible for enforcing gambling regulations of 12 more countries and one American state have indicated their concern. There is explicitly an option for other countries' gambling authorities to sign this letter as well. This might very well mean that we'll see less lootboxes or that they'll be changed so that they comply with gambling standards. Maybe companies will get away with blocking the ability to sell the item, like in the Netherlands and, it seems, Finland but if more countries follow Belgium's lead and outright ban these practices it might no longer be worth the hassle to have them for many. Alternatively, your country might ban certain games entirely because of this, meaning that Fifa and some other games might no longer appear in some countries or might only appear in an altered form.

See this here website of the UK gambling commission: https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/news-action-and-statistics/news/2018/Blurred-lines-between-gambling-and-video-games.aspx (your gambling commission or equivalent might have a statement on this too, use google if you want to read it) where you can also find the statement (it's only a page).

Thoughts?

 

[CaitSeith]

It was bound to happen. If the companies keep showing no self-restrain, they'll lose legal control over gaming industry regulations. It won't be pretty, because they kept pushing the industry to depend on lootboxes. I'd hope this gets rid of predatory developers who substitute meaningful gameplay with a combination skinner boxes and lootboxes instead; but I'm not sure it's worth the secondary damage to the rest of the industry.

tl;dr: they have made their bed and will have to lie in it, for better or for worse.

 

[Dalisclock]

Can't say I'm surprised. The problem is letting the market regulate itself it that the big boys involved pretty much never want to regulate themselves at all, because it would cut into their precious(Often massive) profit margin and we can't have that, can we? So eventually we get to this point where people get sick of their shit and start demanding government bodies step in and the industry has no one else to blame but themselves. They had the chance to self regulate responsibly and predictably decided to be greedy pigs instead and now they have to deal with the consequences(whatever those may be).

 

[WindKnight]

Good. Loot Boxes as they are need to die. I've managed to avoid buying them, but they've definitely ruined some of my time spent with overwatch, and I dread to think what they've done to people with compulsion issues and poor impulse control.

The game industry could have stopped this anytime they wanted, but they refused to, and though I'm a little worried this could go tits up on the legislation side, we wouldn't be in this situation if the game companies would reign themselves in when it come to greed.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

And not a moment too soon. It is a necessary measure when corporations refuse to restrain their greed. The next curiosity is how will EA, Activision and 2K intend to resist forthcoming change as it unravels? Are they building an army of lawyers and lobbyists as we speak/scratch/nibble lightly on chicken drumsticks?

 

[CriticalGaming]

And not a moment too soon. It is a necessary measure when corporations refuse to restrain their greed. The next curiosity is how will EA, Activision and 2K intend to resist forthcoming change as it unravels? Are they building an army of lawyers and lobbyists as we speak/scratch/nibble lightly on chicken drumsticks?

While Lootboxes may finally die off, the microtransactions will not. Instead I imagine we will see more f2p style currencies in AAA games that players can use to buy the shit they want in some kind of store front. A lot like NBA 2K has corrupted itself into being a shit grind, you will have the option to buy extra currency to reduce the grind.

Additionally things like skins will just be purchased outright and probably for stupid amounts of money. This legal action will change microtransactions in AAA games, not remove them.

So while it's nice to see these devs get some actual legal shit thrown their way, in the end it wont matter in the slightest.