Loot Box Rating

Rated 18

There has been a great deal of scrutiny over what can reasonable described as gambling mechanics in video games in general and loot boxes specifically. That’s because, in the main, FIFA games are massive. It might be called EA Sports FC now, but the titan of sales that is Electronic Arts football series is still bringing in the fan and the potential look box sales with it. Several parties have had concerns over the practice of selling loot boxes to children; seen as predatory and selling gambling to kids.

Now there looks to be some major movement on this with PEGI (that the largest rating agency in Europe). Pan European Game Information (PEGI) will begin adding new rating to games that have loot box mechanics (and other mechanics as well), meaning that, going forward, new releases that have such mechanics will be given ratings that range from 3 up to 18. The full story is on PEGI’s website here, but some of the mentioned changes include:

‘Purchases of in-game content: games with time-limited or quantity-limited offers will be classified with a PEGI 12, games with NFTs or blockchain-related mechanisms will be PEGI 18

Paid random items: the default rating will be PEGI 16 if the game contains paid random items (and in some cases they can be a PEGI 18).

Play-by-appointment: mechanisms that reward returning to the game (e.g. daily quests) will get a PEGI 7. If these mechanisms punish players for not returning (e.g. by losing content or reducing progress) they will become PEGI 12.

Safe online gameplay: if games contain entirely unrestricted communication features (e.g. no blocking or reporting), they will be PEGI 18.’

Playing videogames, writing about videogames, considering videogames—that about sums it up. Videogames are the one hobby that I’ve kept since I was only little, zapping ducks on the NES or knocking out MR. X. And when I’m not enjoying classics from the bit generation of games or checking out those earliest of polygons, I’m probably playing something from today’s age of modern gaming: if I’m not complaining about it. Something I’m doing at the moment? Finally tackling Octopath Traveller 2.