In June this year, Valve made the decision to halt CS;GO and DOTA 2 player trades in The Netherlands thanks to governmental legislation that deems lootboxes and their ilk gambling.
Both the Dutch and Belgian gaming authorities have found that loot boxes and their resultant item trades constitute a form of gambling, and the Dutch have put their foot down. They’ve slapped Valve with a bit of legal muscle suggesting that if they hadn’t fixed the “gambling” issue by yesterday, Valve might have been in a bit of legal hot water.
What's in a name? A whole damn lot when it looks as if EA and DICE, after promising high and low that they wouldn't do so, may have included lootboxes in Battlefield V but just not called it lootboxes.
Electronic Art’s Star Wars: Battlefront 2 led the charge, walking away with more than just greediest monetisation of the year nomination. It finally pushed the gaming community over the edge with its implementation of loot boxes and pay-to-win mechanics. It was an entertaining saga with EA’s AMA on Reddit breaking records for the most downvoted comment in the platform’s …
If you’ve been following the current spate of Loot box controversies, then you’ve probably heard the name Chris Lee. He’s the Hawaiian state representative who posted a video to YouTube last month calling out predatory loot boxes, specifically name-checking Star Wars: Battlefront II as an example of games that have casino elements to them. He called the game "a Star Wars-themed online casino." In a new video, Lee has detailed a plan to stop the predatory practice in games that largely target children and those with addictive personalities.
"The mixing of money and addiction is gambling," says Belgium's Gaming Commission, who now wants predatory loot boxes in games banned throughout Europe.
"If you take a step back and look at the data, an hour of video game content is still one of the cheapest forms of entertainment," says an analyst, suggesting that gamers pay even more for their games.
Perhaps as a pre-emptive response to the furore over the now removed Pay-to-win mechanics in Battlfront II, Need for Speed Payback’s loot system has been tweaked a little – giving players more rewards for their time.
It would be naive to say climate change is not real — or that …
A spooky European village. Properly scary castle mania. Vampires. Werewolves! The only thing more frightening, is a glimpse at your empty bank account when it comes to deciding whether or not you can grab Resident Evil Village this month. Capcom's successor to its long-running survival-horror franchise is finally out, and if you've read our review then you know the game is a winner on multiple levels.
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