I honestly hate raw speculations but knowing that The Dutch Gaming Authority and Court have the highest power when it comes to investigating something of this caliber, it might turn out to be bad for EA games as well as all the Star Wars: Battlefront II players.
No matter how taking measures on a global level would make any changes to the situation that EA has, especially after highlighting loot boxes as gambling. It is kind of strange that this has been announced after EA’s controversial problem, which seems to have a higher impact than what everyone thought it would.
Despite the type of investigation at this moment, it feels like it won’t change anything except the game’s rating. This means that if loot boxes are determined to have gambling impact, the game’s rating is going to change to 18+, for which might lower the number of sales but not necessarily because Parents are going to continue buying the games for their precious kids.
It is a known problem, and no one can deal with it since the parents are the only guilty ones for allowing their kids have online exposure in some of the games that have the most strict ratings ever. This Netherlands’ investigation issue has been announced on Reddit, for which we cannot confirm if it is indeed happening or if loot boxes are going to consider as a gambling within a game. However, by visiting their official website we can roughly confirm that something’s going on.
Loot crates hold a mixture of virtual treasure. The items within have the purpose to make the game look more beautiful or easier to play. Some of them stronger, some not, having different RNG according to the power of the wealth within. The one that is better has a lot lesser drop chance, which adds some gambling taste to all the players’ playing that game. Once they get a fresh looking item, the other players that attend the game are going to become jealous of their look/power and want the same for themselves. Then, this is where it becomes circular.
It is a pure win for any single Game Developer, and this issue should be considered for/refer to as gambling. However, what I would love to point out is that this won’t change anything except the game’s rating. To stop loot crates from appearing it’s going to be hard, and considering myself for a mummy in that category, I cannot speak more than just speculate on what could happen in near future.
