Tag Archives: loot boxes

New Zealand’s Department for Internal Affairs has ruled that loot boxes don’t constitute gambling. Gamasutra reached out to the New Zealand agency, and received an email in response from the department’s licensing compliance manager Trish Millward. "While the payment of money for a loot box with the contents of which are …

Hi-Rez Studios is scrapping the in-game currency found in Paladins and is replacing it with a loot box system. The Cards Unbound system works as you might expect, although it differs from some others in that it allows players to level up their cards by obtaining duplicates. The number of …

The UK’s gambling commission will not be stepping into the loot box furore, said a statement today from Tim Miller its executive director. As has been repeated ad nauseam in recent debates, Miller makes the argument that if the items cannot be cashed out then its legal powers would not …

Governments from both sides of the Atlantic have said they intend to take down video games loot boxes. PC Gamer reports that after declaring it was investigating loot boxes last week, the Belgium Gaming Commission has decided that they ARE a form of gambling. Furthermore, as a form of gambling …

In an almost admirable act of overt trolling, one US analyst has argued that EA’s decision to temporarily halt microtransactions in Star Wars Battlefront 2 was a mistake. “The handling of the launch by EA has been poor,” KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Evan Wingren, as reported by CNBC. “Despite this, …

Such is the scale of the Star Wars Battlefront 2 outcry that another quieter controversy surrounding microtransactions in EA’s Need for Speed Payback has slipped under a lot of people’s radars. The game entered the UK charts at No.4 last week but this week dropped all the way to 11th. …

In the hours leading up to its decision to suspend Star Wars Battlefront 2’s loot crate spending, EA has argued that the system is not a form of gambling. This is despite the news that two European countries are investigating just that question. Gamasutra reports that Belgian Gaming Commission general …

Publisher EA has bowed to the ever-growing pressure being heaped on Star Wars Battlefront II by disabling the game’s microtransactions completely. The move can be seen as a victory for the vocal critics who have being piling on the publisher non-stop for the last couple of weeks. EA, however, has …

EA’s somewhat bold Reddit AMA panned out much as you might expect, with the publisher not saying a huge amount in the face of extreme hostility among participants. The move came after a recent EA statement in defence of the spiralling Star Wars Battlefront 2 loot box controversy became the …

Publisher EA is trying to remedy the huge fan unrest that has force choked Star Wars Battlefront II. The company has announced a 75 per cent price cut to the cost of unlocking heroes. It has also vowed to keep making changes until people are happy – although the presence …