The Belgian authorities demanded that Electronic Arts, Activision Blizzard and Valve remove loot boxes from a number of popular online titles. Otherwise, the largest gaming companies face fines of up to €800 thousand.

The Dutch authorities have ordered a number of developers to remove loot boxes from their games. Companies have 2 months to respond. If they do not comply with the requirements, they may be fined and even banned titles with loot boxes on the territory of the country.

In the next 4 years, the turnover from the sale of loot boxes and drawings of game skins will almost double and reach $ 50 billion. This is stated in the report of the analytical company Juniper Research.

Patrick Soderlund, Executive vice President of Electronic Arts, said that the company “cannot afford” the mistakes they made with the loot box system in the online shooter Star Wars Battlefront II. This concerns the future of the MMO thriller Anthem and other projects of the company.

The State Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) of South Korea imposed a fine of $875 thousand on the Nexon gaming company for selling loot boxes. The department considered that the publisher misled the players about their chances of finding a particular reward in the loot chest.

Monolith Production company has warned about the imminent shutdown of microtransactions in the role-playing thriller Middle-Earth: Shadow of War. By mid-July, loot boxes, premium currency and an online store will disappear from the game.

Paid loot boxes will disappear from the online shooter Star Wars: Battlefront II. The remaining boxes with random loot will be issued for game achievements and contain only cosmetic items and game credits, according to the publisher of the game Electronic Arts.

Hawaii became the first US state to propose bills to restrict video games with the mechanics of loot boxes. Such ideas have been voiced before, but it was the Hawaiian administration that first formulated these requirements in the form of legal documents.

Sweden is preparing a new law on gambling regulation. In addition to online casinos, it can also affect video games. The country’s authorities allowed the inclusion of loot boxes in the wording of the law.

The German authorities saw the mechanics of loot boxes as a threat to young people. The reason for the concern of officials was the research of the University of Hamburg. Scientists have come to the conclusion that video games are increasingly converging with gambling, Welt reports.

Square Enix will implement the “game-service” model in new single-player titles, said the company’s CEO Yosuke Matsuda. He clarified that he does not mean loot boxes and microtransactions.

Electronic Arts re-activates microtransactions in the online shooter Star Wars Battlefront II. This was confirmed by the company’s management.

Loot boxes are the most unpopular business model for games. But she also has adherents. This is stated in the report of the annual Game Developer Conference. According to him, 1 out of 10 developers is ready to monetize their title by selling loot boxes.

Ubisoft is not afraid of the anger of gamers. The company gave the go-ahead to add loot boxes to Ghost Recon: Wildlands. They will appear in the shooter until the end of January.

In the United States, three members of the Washington State Senate sent a request to the local Gambling Commission (WSGC) demanding to investigate whether loot boxes in video games violate state laws.

Apple has introduced restrictions on the use of loot boxes in iOS games. The company obliged developers to disclose to users the probability of receiving each type of items before buying a loot box.

Loot boxes do not meet the legal definition of gambling. So it was considered in the gambling control department of the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) of the New Zealand government.

According to EA CFO Blake Jorgensen, at least 35% of players make in-game purchases in the Ultimate Team modes of EA Sports games.

“Let the gaming industry solve the problem of loot boxes by itself. State regulation is a slippery slope,” said Sean Quinlan, a member of the House of Representatives of the Hawaii State Legislature.