>Belgium and Hawaii have both come out against loot boxes today and now the state of Victoria has joined the ranks. Reddit user -Caesar wrote to the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation (VCGLR) inquiring as to the legal status of loot boxes in games >-Caeser got in contact with the regulatory body and received a response from Strategic Analyst for the Compliance Division at VCGLR Jarrod Wolfe. Wolfe replied with a detailed email to -Caeser stating “Your research and suppositions on the matter are correct; what occurs with “loot boxes” does constitute gambling by the definition of the Victorian Legislation.”
That’s THREE countries (counting the US for Hawaii) on EA’s case now.
>That’s THREE countries victoria's not a country you nigger
Ryan Baker
Must suck to be depressed lonely and miserable and have to shitpost on Sup Forums to feel anything
Ian Clark
...
Asher Jackson
Victoria is a state in Australia. So three countries.
Cameron Lopez
Not him but yes, yes it does
Kayden Kelly
its only going to get worse. lootboxes are literally gambling, gambling is literally illegal, and that's a literal free case for literal lawyers all over the world. EA is finished.
William Jackson
And if Belgium does have their way, it’ll affect FIFA Ultimate Team, EA’s Golden Goose, TERRIBLY. EA is indeed fucked.
Brody Scott
its not just belgium, hawaii, australia and victoria are banning the fucking things and it's just going to domino to many other countries.
Kevin Gomez
Isn't Australia investigating too?
Colton Smith
Victoria is IN Australia.
Gabriel Robinson
I just hope that if this thing ever comes through, that companies don't decide to drop "simulated" gambling from games again. RDR2 better have poker and blackjack in it.
Jaxon Sanders
oh I realize I'm slightly tired right now I guess
Gabriel Jenkins
>mfw china is going to crack the fuck down on this shit
they are ANAL about shit like this.
Leo Murphy
>Ea's pushing of shitty practices causes a backlash so immense that it could destroy their main source of growth from the past five years Loving every laugh.
Brody Perry
This truly is the best timeline.
Gavin Long
They already did
Tyler James
When?
Easton Gonzalez
Thanks for the news OP, tell me if I missed something lootbox related:
>In the end, EA was destroyed by the worst, most terrible company in the industry after all, EA.
Like fucking pottery.
Ryan Sullivan
realistically nothing's going to happen. I hate it, but that's just the way it's going to be.
Gabriel James
Australia isnt attempting to ban lootboxes, they just said it constitutes gambling but there isnt anything that they can really do Try actually reading the fucking article before you use it to push an agenda you retard
Leo Lewis
>Call of Duty WWII to change their lootboxes to give cosmetics only Fucking ACTIVISION is siding with gamers? God damn.
Isaac Rodriguez
Oh shit, thanks for the correction user. Will correct appropriately.
Ryder Phillips
This tbhfam
Julian Ross
nonsense, they got GTA V banned from Targets or some shit like that a while back, they can ban BF2 now.
Dylan Clark
>there isnt anything that they can really do pull the games from the shelves
Hunter Myers
>EA jew'd so hard, that Activision is backing out of the shitstorm before its too late
Yep.
Nolan Young
a while ago, they forced them to not only give a cut to the chinese government, they forced them to put the percentage chance of what you are going to get right there on the box.
Levi Lewis
Probably but god damn would it be hilarious to see them hoisted by their own petard.
Colton Jackson
>EA jewed too hard my fucking sides
Wyatt Butler
>when you're so cucked you name your shit after your colonial overlord
Jeremiah Williams
The fact EA was spooked enough to take them out until its figured out legally is a good sign.
Caleb Kelly
Great, now help stop the repeal of Net Neutrality.
Colton Gutierrez
I agree completely.
Sebastian Diaz
Leave that to John Oliver, he stopped the FCC twice.
Zachary Roberts
Realistically speaking, what do you guys think the outcome of the whole shitstorm will be? My money is on all lootbox games getting a mandatory AO rating, since it's a simple and easy way for the ESRB (who, and the end of the day, represent the publishers first and foremost) to say that they're doing something about it.
While this will damage their physical sales, digital ones wont really be affected, and let's be honest, retail sales in general are dying off anyway.
Juan Sullivan
Go fuck yourself Comcast. The net is already neutral.
Kayden Robinson
>My money is on all lootbox games getting a mandatory AO rating That or a specific label regarding gambling/lootboxes. >digital ones wont really be affected Why do you think physical sales will be affected, but digital won't? A ESRB rating is displayed in either case.
Brayden Richardson
>Why do you think physical sales will be affected, but digital won't? A ESRB rating is displayed in either case.
The AO rating is to vidya what the X rating is to movies in the sense that most retailers (like Walmart) will refuse to stock it.
Matthew Perry
They’ve already been hoisted.
Gabriel Ramirez
>Humiliate yourself while working for the most vindictive company on planet earth, causing them to vicariously lose face. >Nothing will happen
If EA doesn’t unfuck itself soon Disney will probably financially and legally brutalise them either now or the very millisecond the contract is over.
Lucas Walker
I'm surprised they haven't already given the state of all of TOR.
Mason Miller
When was the last time you saw online age verification that wasn't a fucking joke?
Kayden Martin
Disney didn’t have a deal with them when that happened. They didn’t even own Lucasfilm yet.
Hudson Morales
>Mario Kart Wii How is it still 36 dollars, and still in the top 100 sellers? What the fuck. Who on earth is still buying brand new copies of Mario Kart Wii?
James Robinson
I hope that at the least, they become legally obligated to give rarity odds for all lootboxes from now on. At least if the odds are known, people will be more careful.
Gavin Lee
And console manufacturers refuse to allow it to be on their platform. So digital sales shouldn't just plummet, they should become non-existent.
Hudson Brown
I seriously doubt it dude, no one is going to give a shit about in game virtual money unless real dosh is involved.
Benjamin Gonzalez
The EU had virtual slot machines from pokemon.
Owen Carter
What? Explain?
James Cox
So pretty much half of America then?
Nolan Hill
Because it’s a good game unlike Nu-Front 2?
Alexander Mitchell
Mario Kart Wii is only good if you're drunk. It's one of the worst games in the series.
Jason Thompson
TOR actually made some serious bank after it went F2P insanely enough. In 2013 it made 139 million buckaroos.
Bentley Jackson
Oh shit really? I didn't know about that. A mandatory AO rating would be fucking hilarious in that case.
Though if that is the case then most likely publishers would lean hard on the ESRB to not let that happen
>In 2013 it made 139 million buckaroos. That was almost 5 years ago. The game has really gotten worse since then. Not mention the population has severely died down.
Lucas Hernandez
we did it, bros. hawaii, belgium and the state of victoria are on our side.
Leo Baker
>Hawaii speaks for the US
Yes an island thousands of miles off the mainland with less than 1% of the country’s total population is totally representative of the US
Levi Miller
>A form of gambling will soon be regulated >lol poorfags
first post poor bait.
Matthew Cook
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
LEAVE FRIEND ALONE
Jayden Turner
Quick note, AO games can't be advertised so freely. In other words the AAA marketing budget is gone if they want loot boxes. AO is a death sentence and the publishers will definitely push for AO to be allowed on console which is in itself a death sentence for any company that pushes it. AO is given to games featuring explicit adult content, now connect the dots and you can see how public outrage sparks up when little Timmy wants to buy Rape School from the local gamestop after seeing an advertisement for Hot Busty Bimbos 2 exclusive on X1X at that years E3 conference. The AAA companies are blinded by their need to jew that they don't realise they only really have one option which is to ditch loot boxes (should they get banned) or accept that those games will have no marketing allowed lest they open the gates of AO content being allowed equal footing with all other forms of gaming.
Liam Bailey
Oh no doubt about that. I just find it pretty interesting. >games made 7 years ago make less money Who knew?
Jaxson Bell
My point was that referencing how much money they made 5 years ago doesn't really mean much in today's discussion considering the game has changed a good bit since then.
Hudson Cooper
>Rape School
I would play the shit out of this.
>Hot Busty Bimbos 2
Casual trash.
Ethan Gray
I think it does seeing as the user mentioned his surprise at Disney(granted his dates dosn't line up as one user mentioned) not removing EA's SW license due to the TOR fuckup, and I thought it a "fun fact" that it might have been less of a fuck up than we originally thought. Since for a while after going F2P it was making bank.
William Powell
hardly relevant since pokemon is aimed at kids, red dead isn't.
Cameron Green
You have good taste sir.
Anthony Gutierrez
>australia and victoria
Ayden Lewis
The COD story you've linked to says the exact opposite, there's a litany of weapons exclusive to weapon chests according to your article. So either you're retarded or linked to the wrong article.
Ayden Harris
On one hand I without a doubt want lootbox crap and gambling shit gone from my games. But on the other hand I am still kind of scared. In a way it really doesn't feel like removing lootboxes solves all that much.
What I mean is basically that the public have more or less already proven that they'll this stupid shit. And EA and all the others know this. So lootboxes has a lot of stigma but they'll just try to come up with something equally shitty. And the normalfag casuals will just eat it up just like last time. Because then it will probably not get the most downvoted post in all of reddit history for them to get upset about.
I mean people still pay for fucking online play on Sony and Microsoft systems even though it's been proven that your payments are not improving the online play and they don't need the subscriptions to keep the servers going. And the vast majority of online games don't even use their servers. But people keep paying. Fuck.
Basically. Even without lootboxes EA and all the others won't just accept their profit margins being lowered. So they will find a replacement. How the fuck do we prevent that? Lootboxes were no doubt a huge mistake, so it's kind of reassuring to see it actually be recognized as the mistake that it was. But how do we prevent repeated mistakes?
Juan Young
>Low ratings means they've been taking down a peg I wish this was true and I also wish every pirated copy means money lost
But that isn't how it is
Jeremiah Green
>But how do we prevent repeated mistakes?
You don't. You have to deal with corporate bullshit as it comes, because for every 100 cancerous innovations, there's one that improves things for pretty much everyone.
Angel Brooks
Lootboxes are cancer, but getting the government involved is a really, really fucking stupid idea.
Dylan King
Why aren't we spreading propaganda and fear-monger on twitter and facebook?
"Parents! Did you know gaming companies like EA inc. is intentionally targeting your children with GAMBLING?!"
Throw a picture of an in-game slot machine with it. I bet it would spread like wildfire.
Anthony James
>So they will find a replacement. I really don't have a problem with cosmetic microtransactions or even XP boosts and the like. It was the RNG on top of the P2W that got EA in trouble. Leaving it up to EA change their own practices obviously isn't going to work. Unless you seriously think they're going to bend to consumer pressure and this didn't happen because Disney got on their ass.
Jace Hernandez
>Belgium You mean the country with a laughable Judicial system which likes to mingle in external affairs? Lmao.
Josiah Brooks
There are not many loot-box comparable things in games. Force the bastards to make money buy selling the product as is, either by marketing or a solid game.
Ethan Torres
The government can be far worse than EA
Carson Howard
Im happy shit like this get banned. Its just a shameless cashgrab anyway and it shouldnt be allowed.
If i want a game, i buy it. Now if i want the game, i have to buy it, buy the dlc, buy lootboxes to open content or characters. AND THATS BULLSHIT
Carter Johnson
If children start gambling inside a casino, the casino will get shut down. 'Not paying attention' is not an argument.
Gaming companies can't see if the player is a child or not, and therefor should not be allowed to offer gambling.
It's illegal to offer kids addictive substances or entertainment. It's pretty simple.
Isaiah Cruz
>The government can be far worse than EA We're not talking about a hypothetical situation here. EA has already said they're going to bring back microtransactions (and I can't imagine they won't bring back lootcrates too). At this point what's the alternative? Letting EA sort it out themselves hasn't done anything.
Cameron Baker
>WE kek, I think you mean reddit op
Thomas Wright
>can't do anything >literally banned adults from buying r18 shit off shelves
