The ESRB has announced a new change in policy with ratings as they will now point out in-game purchases such as loot boxes The company made the reveal this morning, stating that they had started assigning the In-Game Purchases and Users Interact notices to games The goal os the "In-Game Purchases Interactive Element" informs parents and other[...]
It appears the era of loot boxes may be coming to a close within the next few years, and England has a new report on them tied to gambling The report published by Claire Murdoch, the mental health director of England's National Health Service did a study on the subject and said that the transactions[...]
A parent of an underaged Fortnite player has sued Epic Games in California this week over the original llama loot boxes, claiming they were unfair and deceptive The Verge broke the news and has the complete court document if you'd like to read it, but the short version is that the mother claims the original[...]
Electronic Arts just joined a growing list of companies who are forced to take loot boxes and microtransactions off the market in Belgium The company issued a statement this week confirming that FIFA Points will be removed from FIFA 19 in the country, however, they will continue to remain a part of the game everywhere[...]
It looks like Epic Games is letting you see exactly what you're purchasing in Fortnite loot boxes, but only in a specific mode that isn't the most popular version When the next update rolls around for the game (7.3.0), the developers are going to allow you to see exactly what's inside every llama you could[...]
The latest country to put loot boxes and microtransactions on blast and question their existence this week is Australia The Australian Senate Environment and Communications References Committee delivered a report looking into loot boxes called "Gaming micro-transactions for chance-based items", which did an in-depth study into the issue and their findings are less than promising toward[...]
A little bit of good news coming from 343 Industries, sort of, as it has been confirmed the company will not be adding cash loot boxes in Halo: Infinite In a bit of a thread on Twitter, Studio Head FPS at 343 Industries Chris Lee confirmed that the company will not be adding any form[...]
Today, Blizzard issued a statement on its forums letting people know that loot boxes have been disabled for two games in Belgium Specifically for Overwatch and Heroes of the Storm Following the trend that Valve first started with CS:GO a few weeks ago, the company is following the local law after they had been considered gambling[...]
When last we spoke about the judgment about loot boxes around the world, The Netherlands and Belgium decided to classify them as gambling This led Valve to shut down their system in both those countries until they could find a solution The solution they came up with: eliminate the ability to open them.The latest update to[...]
The president of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), Michael Gallagher, has defended the practice of offering loot boxes in video games during his address at the Nordic games Conference According to GamesIndustry.biz, Gallagher warned that efforts to regulate them as a form of gambling "challenges our industry's freedom to innovate, and impairs our ability to continuously[...]
It didn't take long after The Netherlands made their own ruling that loot boxes were a form of gambling for other European countries to explore the matter and make their own decisions Today, Belguim just made one that could be the start of a lengthy legal process in their country for both sides Eurogamer is[...]
A report is coming out of The Netherlands today, following an investigation over ten unnamed video games by the Netherlands Gaming Authority, that had determined that certain loot boxes are unlawful and illegal under the government's current gambling laws We have a snippet from the official report below, but the short version is that some (not all)[...]
Prior to Cards Unbound, players would unlock the stat cards through randomized loot boxes or through crafting With Cards Unbound, the cards would be made available to all players The trouble came with the new card levelling system To level up a card, players would need to collect several duplicates to fuse into a higher[...]
If you're not a fan of loot boxes, don't sweat it, because there are people within the gaming industry who don't like them either In an interview with PC Gamer, CD Projekt Red's CEO Adam Kiciński opened up about how he feels about loot boxes, saying that when you buy a game it should be the[...]
As we reported earlier this week, there are a couple bills waiting to be seen by the Hawaiian legislature over loot boxes and microtransactions, which if they manage to pass could have an impact on the way the industry handles putting them in games moving forward Today, the Entertainment Software Association decided to offer their[...]
Technically, Hoshi no Dragon Quest features a gacha system, but the Japanese gacha system is very similar to western games' loot boxes That said, 8 players are seeking a class action lawsuit against developer Square Enix over the gacha system in Hoshi no Dragon Quest.Now, because this is a Japanese class-action suit mostly being reported by Japanese[...]
Gamasutra first picked up the news today, sharing an interview with News Tribune in which Senator Kevin Ranker says the bill enlists Washington state and the video game industry to figure out how to regulate loot boxes.“It is unacceptable to be targeting our children with predatory gambling masked in a game with dancing bunnies or something,” Ranker[...]
The user claimed that after opening 50 loot boxes, they hadn't found any of the new items rolled out in the update.[embed]https://twitter.com/PlayOverwatch/status/956244960432418817?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ign.com%2Farticles%2F2018%2F01%2F25%2Fblizzard-assures-overwatch-players-that-loot-box-odds-have-not-changed[/embed]Thanks to China's regulatory disclosures for loot boxes, the odds of opening a loot box to find one of the new legendary skins is around one in 11[...]
What you'll find most interesting are the results on interest in the Nintendo Switch and interest in loot boxes.It seems like interest in developing games for the Switch is growing with 12% of respondents working on a game for the platform 15% planning to make their next game available on Switch As for which platform[...]
You'd think game companies would learn the lessons that have been taught to them over the past calendar year about putting loot boxes inside games, but you know what.. they don't Bandai Namco is the latest to join the "bad idea in a good game" train by adding loot boxes to Dragon Ball FighterZ The news[...]
