Belgium defines loot boxes as a dangerous game and investigates their elimination

The video game industry has been changing for the worse in recent years, first with DLCs that serve to cut content from games and then sell them separately, and now with loot boxes and micropayments in titles that have a starting price of 60-70 euros only the base game.

The end of loot boxes and micropayments could be near

The Belgian commission of the game is investigating the Star Wars: Battlefront II and Overwatch games from EA and Activision / Blizzard respectively, the objective is to decide if the implementation of the loot boxes within the games are part of a game. The latest reports indicate that finally, if these promotion systems and player promotion within the video game had been considered game.

BioWare wants to introduce loot boxes to Anthem

The Belgian gaming commission has stated that the mix of money and addiction within these video games is gaming. Justice Minister Koen Geens has stated that the Belgian government plans to take action against these systems that mix gambling and money and that they are potentially very dangerous, especially for the younger ones as they can affect their mental health.

Currently it appears that Belgium is seeking to ban in-game purchases where players don't know exactly what they are buying and plans to file a case within the EU to create regulations for these systems. This is likely to take some time, although EU-level regulations are likely to be sufficient to have a global effect on these systems, given the size of the European market and the likelihood that other states will adopt similar rules.

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