Mike Peterson
The UK government has decided to forego regulating loot boxes in games under current gambling regulations, instead stating that it would discuss industry-led measures on the matter.
After a 22-month investigation of loot boxes in the country, UK Culture Minister Nadine Dorries said that the country would not be moving to ban the in-app or in-game monetization feature, The Guardian reported Monday.
Loot boxes are a common feature in many games and apps. They allow customers to exchange real money for in-game rewards and special items, but are often compared to gambling because consumers don't know what items they will get in a box.
Other countries, like Belgium, have banned loot boxes. Similar efforts have been proposed in the US, but have failed to gain any ground.
Back in 2020, Apple was hit with a class action lawsuit claiming that it encouraged addictive behavior and gambling because it allowed loot boxes within games. The iPhone maker successfully fended off the lawsuit earlier in 2022.
Although there won't be a blanket ban on loot boxes in the UK, regulators in the country said they would pursue tougher "industry-led" rules.
"Our view is that it would be premature to take legislative action without first pursuing enhanced industry-led measures to deliver protections for children and young people and all players," the UK consultation reads.
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8 Comments
So-called "Consumable" IAPs (In-App Purchases) is the App Store model that enables loot boxes and the ability to spend infinite amounts of real money on a game. The psychology is very deliberate and harmful: you can never truly win because there's always someone who's as addicted with more money and has spent more than you to level up, so it creates a loop-cycle of addicted individuals trying to out-compete and therefore out-spend one another. Loot boxes take that exploitative model even further and well into gambling territory. It's sick.
If the courts don't stop it, then Apple should. But of course, the apps make far too much for Apple due to their commission, so they won't. I guess being a multi-trillion dollar company isn't enough for them. They have to try to suck money out of addicted gamers and children using mummy's credit card, sometimes costing thousands before parents notice..
Whether they are gambling or not is a question for someone else. I just hate loot boxes because they are cheating.
You should progress through the game and get more advanced as you go by experience. If you clear a level and find a loot box with a new weapon, or spell, or shield, or even a pile of gold, fine. But to just be able to come in and buy top line kit as a newby is just wrong. It’s like the high school kid that gets his license and then daddy buys him a Ferrari. They don’t appreciate it because they didn’t put in the work to get it. There’s an old joke about some greenhorn being “all hat and no cattle”. That’s what these people are. They bought there way in, but they cheated to get there.
Where do developers of these games stand with this? Is it similar to other addictive products where the manufacturers blame users because they are "choosing" to use, or use too much?
I agree that Apple should do the right thing and ban such features — when the money passes through their system. They are complicit as a result.
This could be viewed as the UK government believing that they don't have the power (or, more likely, the capability) to enforce a ban. That's a shame. But not a surprise.