Microtransactions & Live Services (but no Loot Boxes) in Anthem

The Verge: EA says it’s learned from Star Wars Battlefront controversy, vows to ‘be better’
www.theverge.com/2018/4/13/17230874/ea-star-wars-battlefront-2-loot-box-patrick-soderlund-interview

“We have taken significant steps as a company to review and understand the mechanics around monetization, loot boxes, and other things in our games before they go to market,” he says. “For games that come next, for Battlefield or for Anthem, [players have] made it very clear that we can’t afford to make similar mistakes. And we won’t.”


And this bit touches on what I consider to be an industry-wide problem...

“It’s clear to us that players see the company differently than we do,” he says. “And in that situation, as a member of the executive team, as the guy who runs all of the studios, I have to take that seriously. And we have to continue to listen and understand what’s triggering that. We have to be very cautious of what we do.” But Söderlund acknowledges that only the company’s actions, not its words, will make a true difference.

One of the issues the gaming industry often raises is that most gamers don't understand how the industry works. And this is very true, and it's a problem.

But time after time we see the opposite is also true. I don't want to imply that it applies to everyone in the industry, but time and again we see not just at the executive level, but even at the developer level, that they just don't seem to understand how gamers see the industry, and the various practices in it. And at times are genuinely mystified at how gamers react to certain things like monetization, etc.

I remember a (polite) discussion/disagreement I had with "Ask A Game Dev" over MT & Loot Boxes. AAGD being fully behind them, feels children should be allowed to buy them, and would fine if gambling in general didn't have the restrictions on age, table limits, intervention, etc. they do now. AAGD's take being "personal responsibility" over restrictive laws.

But moreover I got the sense AAGD, as well as from other Devs & Execs, can't understand why gamers were making a fuss over them. And I wondered if being in the industry changes your perspective so much that you can't relate to "regular gamers" anymore. Even Extra Credits is guilty of this sometimes.

That's the cash cow. Big news...

It might not be those games - the authority did not name them and there's only one PEGI 3 on the list of games they looked at, yet both FIFA 18 and Rocket League are PEGI 3, so it's a bit iffy if they are actually those games. Also like I said in the above post it's not the lootboxes that make it gambling but the secondary sites where money can be exchanged, and in the case of FIFA 18, they don't actually own those sites and they are against their ToS so they might be able to challenge that. It's weird in the UK they are actually targeting those sites and shutting them down.

I don't think this is as big as you make it out to be.  Valve got a letter about this from the gaming commission back when the DOTA gambling sites were big news.  I think EA will remove or block the player market from the countries this is impacted by and possibly remove it all together with FIFA 19.  I wasn't able to find an exact version that they added this to FIFA, but the earliest version was the 2015 release, so if EA looks for clarification they might alter it to function if they didn't have a problem with the prior versions of it.

To me this is a bigger hit to Valve for it could be problematic for their Steam Marketplace in the future for any game that has lockboxes.  Both DOTA and PUBG have problems with skin gambling.

I never played Rocket League so I cannot comment on that one.

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Now the Belgian Gaming Commission has entered into the fray.

Overwatch, FIFA 18 & CS: GO are in violation of the gambling rules and are considered illegal.

Publishers can face fines of  800K Euros and up tp 5 years in jail.

Link:  Illegal

PS: Use google translate if needed

Edit: If I translate this correctly, four elements need to happen in a game to be in violation of the rules:
(1) It must be a game,
(2) has a stake....???
(3) which leads to either win or loss for the player
(4)coincidence has to play a role.....  this I don't understand

From Ars Tech:Criminal

1) it a game
2) (rather "at stake") there is a wager,
3) you can lose (or win)
4) it random chance

Maybe? They say if it's marketed to minors they'll even double the fines, my bet is that it is a major drive to keep kids away from gambling.
From what I can understand it is about things like lootboxes. You put money on table, buy that box and then what you get is randomly determined. You can win (that juicy prize) or lose (get nothing or some grey stuff you dint want)

Corporate have argued that players always get something in der lootbox, but Belgians seem to rather go with "it like lottery ticket" - you can win prize or some cheap junk you'd never have paid for in the first place if it wasn't for the bet on better outcome.

So you'll probably don't see whatyouseeiswhatyouget MTX being sactioned - just those that don't tell what you get because the outcome is random.

I think at the very least lawyers are going to be involved to get clear reasons what makes each of these implementations go against the law and go from there.  If the problem these countries are having is dealing with Ultimate Team I could see EA putting a region lock into the game to prevent those countries if they aren't big spenders in their game to prevent them from accessing the parts that go against the laws.