Quote:The U.S. is actually coming late to the loot box regulation party. (Not a whole lot of people RSVP'd.) Dutch gaming authorities went after Valve in June, and in September, the European Union's gambling commission announced that it planned to investigate the trend. It makes sense--the only difference between loot boxes and typical gambling is that the former's prizes are in-game items rather than real money.

That's part of the reason why loot boxes are so effective. It doesn't matter how low the chances of getting something you actually want are if there's at least some possibility. Combine that with the fact that many games make opening loot boxes a spectacle filled with neat sound effects, cute animations, and the like, and it's no wonder so many gamers find themselves spending money on these digital slot machines.

This is particularly concerning--especially from a regulatory standpoint--when loot boxes make their way into kid's games. That's exactly what Hassan mentioned in the Congressional oversight committee where she asked the FTC to investigate the model. According to Polygon, Hassan said that children are especially vulnerable to the appeal of loot boxes, which is worrying given how close they are to gambling.

There's no telling how long it will take the FTC to investigate loot boxes or, if it agrees that they need to be regulated, how it will do so. Considering how vital these revenue sources have become to game companies, odds are good that they'll aggressively lobby to protect themselves from regulation. Regulators around the world are finally paying attention to the issue, though, and that's a good thing.

Quote:The more regulators and researchers look into loot boxes, the more they look like gambling. It doesn’t matter if the items you get have no real-world value — people attach value to them. This is different than a conventional in-game purchase or DLC because you don’t know what you’re getting in a loot box. So, you can’t do a cost-benefit analysis to decide if you should spend the money. Loot boxes exploit human psychology just like a spinning roulette wheel, dangling the possibility of fabulous prizes in front of our faces to encourage spending. We’re only beginning to understand how that affects players, and maybe the FTC can help figure that out.