Activision Blizzard has just been fined a pathetic $5,000 for not disclosing the presence of loot boxes in Diablo Immortal.
Diablo Immortal $5k Fine
News shared via Eurogamer has revealed that PEGI’s Enforcement Committee has decided to fine Activision Blizzard and Plaion for violating the rules described in the PEGI Code of Conduct. It has been found that Diablo Immortal and Hunt: Showdown Bounty Hunter have both been hit with a $5,000 fine for not telling PEGI about the loot boxes that the games contain and both have been forced to update their store listings and marketing materials to reflect these loot boxes.
So if your first reaction when reading this is to laugh at the pathetically small amount then I’m glad I am not alone. $5000 is nothing to these companies, some people spend more than that on their PCs how on earth is that going to deter them from doing it in the future? Loot boxes are awful things and Diablo Immortal I’d almost claim to be one of the worst games I’ve ever seen when it comes to loot boxes and microtransactions. When the game launched it was found to cost over $110,000 to max out your character and also that a Twitch streamer spent over $6,500 and didn’t even receive a 5-star gem! How did they even think they’d get away with not disclosing loot boxes to PEGI, clearly it was because they knew the fine would be less than half the amount of money a retail worker earns in a year.
