Entertainment Unfiltered
It would also do a number on “pay-to-win” games. The march towards instituting a ban on loot boxes hasn’t exactly been at the forefront of the last couple of months, but that might change soon. Senator Josh Hawley has introduced a bill dubbed the Protecting Children from Abusive Games Act aimed at fighting both the […]
Here it comes. The Federal Trade Commission has announced that they’ll begin investigating loot boxes, with a focus on how they affect children. Junior New Hampshire Senator Maggie Hassan raised the topic with the FTC commissioners at a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation subcommittee hearing, among other topics. We discussed loot boxes, which allow in-game […]
LOL. According to Eurogamer, the Belgian government has launched a criminal investigation into EA. Why, Because EA has refused to comply with the recent Belgian gambling laws declaring loot boxes in games to be illegal. And it wasn’t Star Wars Battlefront II that did them in this time. It was FIFA 18. According to Dutch […]
EA screwed everyone. Soon, the ability to buy loot boxes in Overwatch with real money will be disabled in Belgium and The Netherlands. To comply with the Belgian Gaming Commission, Blizzard will soon disable the sale of loot boxes in those countries. And this decision also extends to Heroes of the Storm. The BGC declared […]
Good God, please let this unceasing nightmare end. As the politicians move in on the industry over the loot box mess, the ESRB is trying one last move to hopefully appease them. In this case, they plan to force games that contain loot boxes to include a label stating that the game includes in-game purchases. […]
The FTC might get involved. Senator Maggie Hassan sent a letter to ESRB president Patricia Vance, calling on the agency to curb the proliferation of loot boxes. In a separate Q&A session with FTC commissioner nominees, the senator implied that if the ESRB doesn’t take action, the government could get involved. In the letter, as […]
This might be one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard of. Call of Duty: WW2 has been getting some flak from armchair historians on Steam of late. I don’t much care, since it’s a game in a series that I don’t personally enjoy. But the damned Loot Box Leviathan reared it ugly head once […]
Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, loot the corpses for cool shit. Swedish developer Fatshark unveiled Warhammer: Vermintide 2 yesterday. They showed off all kinds of features large and small, but one thing was obviously not on the table; loot boxes. And, as the developer confirmed, that because there won’t be any. We […]
The ride never ends. Loot boxes and gambling seem to be the big thing of late. As you may have noticed. Well, now it’s the sort of thing that’s going to the UK government. Labour Party MP David Zeichner has submitted some questions to the government regarding loot boxes and a possible connection to gambling. […]
According to the ESRB, still not gambling. Thanks to a cheat engine, PC players of Middle-earth: Shadow of War are able to get infinite loot boxes. Well, at least, infinite common loot boxes. Programs like Cheat Engine allow players to generate as much Mirian (the in-game currency) as they like. They can then use that […]
Mortgaging your home for digital crap is a-ok. As it turns out, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) doesn’t see loot boxes as gambling. In a statement made to Kotaku, a spokesperson had this to say: ESRB does not consider loot boxes to be gambling… While there’s an element of chance in these mechanics, the […]
I feel like I don’t have a dog in this fight. OpenCritic, one of the largest review aggregators, has decided to take a stand against loot boxes. Specifically, those in paid games. We're going to take a stand against loot boxes. We're looking into ways to add business model information to OpenCritic. — OpenCritic (@Open_Critic) […]
