Battlefront II’s Microtransactions Draws Attention Of Hawaii and Belgium

The controversy that EA has sparked via Star Wars Battlefront II continues to grow. Now, it’s true that EA has temporarily shut down all microtransactions in games, but many agree that it won’t be down forever, it will return, and that’s worrying some people. Specifically, the governments of Hawaii and Belgium That’s quite an interesting pair, huh? But don’t take this pair lightly, for their not holding back in their dislike of Loot Boxes and other microtransactions, and they’re looking to take serious action against this practice.

For example, with Belgium, they’ve cited that Loot Boxes truly are “gambling“, and thus are going to work hard to try and ban all Loot Box activity in gaming from Europe. That would be a big blow to companies, but, they feel it’s the best thing to do in order to protect the children who play these games.

“Mixing gambling and gaming, especially at a young age, is dangerous for the mental health of the child,” said Belgian Minister of Justice Koen Geens.

Then, with Hawaii, several representatives spoke out about what Star Wars Battlefront II was doing and states that they want to prevent games like this from getting traction through these microtransactions. Citing them to be “Predatory Practices”. They’re very insightful in how this development occurred, citing references to the mobile gaming market as the beginning of microtransactions, and how this could seriously hurt families financially. The head of this movement, Chris Lee, even went so far as to call this a “trap” for gamers. As well as mirroring the Belgian minister by referring to this as gambling.

Even if no major repercussions come of this, this is going to be a black eye to EA. Or maybe, a second black eye. And this will tarnish some of their image for sure.