Yesterday the the House of Lords officially declared that Loot Boxes (“surprise mechanics”) fall under the “Games of Chance” act of ’95, and must be regulated and advertised as such immediately. This is huge for gaming at the moment as Loot Boxes have been a thorn in the sides of gamers now for years, hampering experiences by holding costumes, weapons and power ups behind a pay walls in games like Fortnite where you cannot pick and choose what you want. with reported cases of people getting unhealthy and life damaging obsessions with buying loot boxes to the point of addiction.
What this means for game companies in selling their wares in UK…well I don’t exactly no my self, games such as Crash Team Racing (CTR)that implemented loot boxes after release will no have to be classed as a Pegi 16 game as well as Fifa and many other games aimed at kids. companies such as EA will have to comply with UK law to sell and advertise their games as containing gambling mechanics…this wont necessarily slow them down but it will mean people will be made aware of the games having gambling in them, and hopefully no shady tactics like Activision and CTR wont happen in the future.
this is amazing news that I’ve personally been wanting to happen for a long time now how it effects gaming in the UK is yet to be seen but its a step in the right direction.