Counter

As global regulations target loot in video games, developers are making changes in light of those rules. Valve has released a new patch for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive that ended the content boxes in Holland and Belgium.

Players in the Netherlands and Belgium can no longer open random content boxes in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Players in the Netherlands and Belgium will no longer be able to open random content boxes in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive after this week's patch. This will prevent players in those countries from directly interacting with loot, presumably in compliance with Dutch and Belgian gambling law.

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This feature has been disabled due to the Dutch Gambling Authority, which says that loot boxes contravene the law if the loot game assets are transferable, and that they do not contravene the law if they are not transferable. Based on the wording of the patch notes, it appears that Dutch and Belgian players will still get content boxes - they just can't open them.

Players who have had their inventories blocked as a result of the initial measure, may be wondering how long they will be able to sell and market their items, with potentially hundreds of dollars worth of items attached to their accounts, you may see an influx of these items in the Steam market.

Valve said its only alternative for now is to disable transfers from the Steam Marketplace and Steam Marketplace for CS: GO and Dota 2 on items from Dutch customers. In April, the Dutch Gaming Authority gave a handful of developers eight weeks to change their loot practices, and called for loot regulation to be implemented across the European Union.

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