Loot boxes and in-game purchases has been a popular way for developers to make money for their game beyond the original price that was paid. Unfortunately the rise in popularity of loot boxes has raised some eyebrows, where last year was the tipping point where EA’s Star Wars: Battlefront 2’s loot boxes were investigated over the possibility that it might be gambling.Over in Belgium, the authorities ultimately considered the feature to be gambling and as a result, this has impacted a couple of Blizzard games, namely Overwatch and Heroes of the Storm. To that end, Blizzard has since announced that they will be disabling paid loot boxes and loot chests for both games until further notice.
According to Blizzard, “In April 2018, the Belgian Gaming Commission published a report that was endorsed by the Belgian Ministry of Justice in which they concluded that paid loot boxes in Overwatch are considered gambling under local law. While we at Blizzard were surprised by this conclusion and do not share the same opinion, we have decided to comply with their interpretation of Belgian law.”
However as the company points out, this only applies to paid loot boxes and loot chests. This means that players will still have access to content that can be obtained via loot boxes and loot chests, except that they’ll need to earn it by playing games instead of buying them using real-life money.
Filed in . Read more about Blizzard, Heroes Of The Storm, Legal and Overwatch.