Major Console Publishers Will Start Forcing Developers to Disclose Loot Box Odds

Loot boxes. They’re a thing. People don’t like them. People don’t like them so much that many governments are stepping in and trying to put a stop to them using pre-existing gambling laws. Sometimes, like in Belgium, it works. Other times, like in the UK, it does not. But with scrutiny over them growing more and more intense regardless of the legal standing, the ESA, the premier video game lobbyist, has decided it’s finally time to do SOMETHING about it.

…literally the bare minimum “something”, but something none the less.
 

“Several video game industry leaders are announcing new initiatives to help consumers make informed choices about their purchases, including loot boxes. The major console makers – Sony Interactive Entertainment, operator of the PlayStation platform, Microsoft, operator of Xbox and Windows, and Nintendo, operator of the Nintendo Switch gaming platform – are committing to new platform policies that will require paid loot boxes in games developed for their platforms to disclose information on the relative rarity or probability of obtaining randomized virtual items. These required disclosures will also apply to game updates, if the update adds new loot box features. The precise timing of this disclosure requirement is still being worked out, but the console makers are targeting 2020 for the implementation of the policy.”

So yeah. Console makers are going to force people to disclose odds. Will that help in any kind of imaginable situation, even slightly? No, of course not: people are already generally aware that the odds of winning the lottery, calling the right number in roulette, or getting that super-rare skin are bad: some people just aren’t able to control the impulse, which is really the root of the problem.

But as a Band-Aid solution to try and appease policymakers, it just might do the trick. So good job, ESA. You wankers.