You would’ve thought that the whole issue surrounding in-game loot boxes was pretty straightforward and should’ve been sorted out years ago. I mean, I think they’re a form of gambling, and what’s more, I believe that the vast majority of other people like you do as well. For many government and regulatory bodies though, it seems that it’s an issue that they’re currently either preferring not to touch or, wherever possible, push back for as long as they can!
Following a report via GamesIndustry, however, it seems that patience within the UK Government might finally be coming to an end as they have effectively issued the gaming industry with one final warning: ‘fix and/or regulate in-game loot boxes pretty damn quickly, or we’re going to step in and do it for you!’.
UK Government Gives Gaming Industry One Last Chance to Regulate Loot Boxes
It seems that the UK government is starting to err towards officially classing in-game loot boxes as a form of gambling. The problem, however, is that should they go ahead with this and put them in the same bracket as current gambling laws, it would potentially open up a huge can of worms for a lot of other unintended and unforeseen markets. – For example, this could see things like Panini football sticker packs become an 18+ restricted item. They do, in effect, share the exact same principles of paying for something where the results are unknown/undetermined.
As such, the UK government is still ideally looking for the gaming industry to come together to solve this problem themselves. The only issue is that the gaming industry isn’t doing anything! And can you blame them? Voluntarily choosing to regulate or kill ‘loot box’ mechanics is asking them to cut off one of their more lucrative sources of post-sale gaming income!
With countries like Belgium already introducing loot-box laws though, it seems that sooner or later other countries are going to have to follow suit because the gaming industry has shown no intention of doing it themselves. – Lest we forget EA describing them as ‘ethicial surprise mechanics’.
What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!
