While last year may have been one of the biggest gaming years of all time, it was also one that say the rise of one of the biggest controversies in gaming history, the abuse of the Loot Box. Loot Boxes and crates have been around in video games for some time, same as pure microtransactions. But last year, via titles like Need for Speed: Payback, Battlefront II, and more, the use of them had become basically abusive, and gamers fought back, and they weren’t alone.
After the fallout of Star War Battlefront II and their Loot Box and progression system, many governments decided to look into the matter and see if what was going on was right. Over the last many months, certain countries have risen up to say that Loot Boxes are gambling, and should be banned from video games in their country. The Netherlands is one such country, and starting today, they’re going to enforce their ban of the system.
In fact, Steam has already been sent a warning by the Gaming Authority of The Netherlands and told to change things in some of their games else face the penalties of the country. Valve has responded and said they’re taking down some of their properties within games like DOTA and CS: GO to ensure they comply with the law.
In a statement yesterday, the Gaming Authority said this:
The Gaming Authority will check from tomorrow (June 20, 2018) whether game companies have made adjustments to their illegal loot boxes, treasure boxes in games. If they have done so, it will be checked whether the adjustments are sufficient to be no longer able to be characterized as a game of chance as described in the Betting and Gaming Act.
As you can see, they’re taking this very seriously, as are many other countries. The US, UK, and others haven’t banned Loot Boxes yet, but developers are definitely going to take notice of this.
This is incorrect “Kansspelautorieteiten” means Gambling Authorities, NOT Gaming Authorities. There is no Gaming Authorities.