U.S. Senator Introduces Bill To Ban Loot Boxes And Pay-To-Win Microtransactions

From Kotaku: "Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) today announced a bill that would ban loot boxes and pay-to-win microtransactions in “games played by minors,” a broad label that the senator will include both games designed for kids under 18 and games “whose developers knowingly allow minor players to engage in microtransactions."

[Nitrowolf2]

This is fixing it to a degree, a lot of mobile games are gonna get regulated if this passes.

However, the loop around is obviously make more M rating titles, which at that point a vast amount of parents ignore ratings anyway.

[DillyDilly]

I say start putting a hard to ignore bit Rated M Logo on the front cover

[Nitrowolf2]

They could always put them in those porno slip covers
XD

[KillZallthebeast]

Gambling age is 21 so they would basically need to give it the kiss of death A/O if they manage to relate loot boxes to that.

[gamer7804]

why in the world do we want government legislating video gaming, unless its actually gambling, which microtransactions to gain an advantage aren't at all.

[Smokehouse]

Video games aside, why do we want government legislating gambling at all unless it’s truly impossible odds of course.

Did you know that if you win at gambling in international waters the US still taxes your winnings? If you hit (I think) 1200 dollar profit on a slot machine. Cash it in and then lose it at blackjack. You still have to pay tax on that 1200 win. A 10-99 I think. That’s the “good intention” scumbaggery at work here lol. Its a scam, a way to siphon money. I can understand an age limit but 18 is fine.

The house odds are always outrageous, every single person that goes in there knows that. People win sometimes though, it’s why they go. It’s why they play the lottery which is heavily taxed. Who’s the real thief? At least the casino was a good time. The IRS did dick.

[ocelot07]

What is the point of lootboxes? If I wanted a certain costume for my character or skin for my gun. Why do I have to take a gamble and open a lootbox and hope so get what I want? Why can't I just unlock it via playing the game like I use to or at a push buy it out right with a premium currency?

Why must I take a gamble? I know why it's because these greedy company's know they won't make as much money doing that and much rather pinch at peoples addicted nature to make money money. That is the sole reason for lootboxes.

[knickstr]

So many kids get games digitally now too which makes it even easier to get M rated games.

[JackBNimble]

Well if mom and dad are doing their job then they would have installed parental control to their kids accounts and pretty much make it impossible to just buy anything.

[DrumsOfWar]

Well, there may be hope for our congress after all.

[shadowraiserx]

Titles rated M (Mature) have content that is generally suitable for persons ages 17 and up. May contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language. This is gonna affect M rated games too, the only way they could get away with it is to embrace the A (Adults Only) rating and start developing games like that and sell them digital only or buy it on online retailers like amazon with a credit card and ID presentation.

[crazyCoconuts]

No thanks big government. We've got these things called parents that already have this job

[Eonjay]

No. The problem is that these practices take value away from the game and put it behind paywalls. You parents don't do this. Greed does.

[crazyCoconuts]

If you don't like it, don't buy it. Do you think the government's role should be to litigate what companies should deliver? You expect government to remove "greed" via laws? What kind of countries do we see in history when governments have that amount of power? Think Ministry of Culture...

[Eonjay]

@crazy

The whole "don't like don't buy" approach doesn't work. Because the publisher is more than okay with denying everyone the content to get the people who are willing to pay. Games with thousands of dollars in microtransactions make enough money to more than compensate for the people turned away from the game in the first place.

[Rachel_Alucard]

@crazy

Looking at it purely economically:
In exchange for providing no meaningful additional economic service, we are allowing game makers to abuse human psychology to impoverish a particular subset of the population. That impoverished portion of the population loses spending power, weakening the economy. This is bad.

Microtransactions and lootboxes take essentially no effort to create. Making $100m from lootboxes doesn't even cost $100k in development costs. That means that the creation of lootboxes did not meaningfully contribute to the economy. You know how every movie these days goes "this movie created 15000 jobs, etc. etc."? It's to educate the population on the fact that that hugely wasteful $500m budget actually helped the economy. The loot boxes for a multi-billion-dollar video game probably created two or three jobs. That is bad.

Loot boxes are easy to make! Everyone knows how to do it. Any loser in their basement can make an app that abuses this facet of human psychology. Why are there so many gacha games? Because they're easy to make! Loot boxes are abusable. It is easy to make them and they make lots of money. Why would a developer spend time doing anything else? They can do something easy that makes lots of money! Loot boxes become more and more common. Loot boxes are, as we previously discussed, bad for the economy. Lots of people doing them is VERY bad for the economy.

This is the free market at work. This is what happens when you don't regulate. Lots of companies find an abusable niche, they all jump onto it, and the quality of product and consumer lifestyle drops. This is why you regulate. Because you cannot allow companies to do whatever they want. If you do, they will do the easiest, most profitable, least economically-beneficial thing.

[crazyCoconuts]

You guys are going to get the government you deserve. Spoiler alert: 1984

[JackBNimble]

Crazycoconuts has a point , simply don't support developers and publishers producing these games.
To many people bitch about loot boxes and MT's yet continue to support these games by buying them,
It's quite hypocritical actually.

I don't agree that more regulations are the way to go.
I don't want to see the government with their hands in our gaming , telling us what we can or cannot have in our games.
People need to think about this beyond MT's and look at the bigger picture. Regulations means restrictions and sooner or later they will be restricting us on what we want in our games.

[jeki]

Please explain how you're being forced to purchase loot boxes.

[Araragifeels]

You are part of the problem. This is why many games have loot boxes and is slowly ruining a lot of AAA games. I wouldn't mind loot boxes on Free2Play games but on AAA games is ridiculously.

I am happy that the government is stepping in so publisher like Activision, EA and others can stop abusing players.

[jeki]

When they step in because they think games are too sexy or too violent please don't scream your head off on the internet, we'll just say we told you so.

[Araragifeels]

@jeki The game industry itself already step in on too violent and sexy games. PlayStation, Publishers, and Game studios already started to censored and we can't stop but I at least would be happy that the gov step in on loot boxes and microtransation.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

You like people getting abused in game right? Even if you favourite would one day get these nightmares!?

[crazyCoconuts]

If it bugged me enough I wouldn't buy it. If it bugged enough people, they wouldn't buy it either, and companies would stop doing it. Simple

[Rachel_Alucard]

@crazy

It bugs a huge amount of people and they don't buy it. If 100 people said no and 3 people said yes, all it takes is 3 whales to make up the cost of all those people and then some. It doesn't matter if most people say no, as long as some people with disposable income keep investing into the system, it won't stop.

[2pacalypsenow]

Obviously parents are doing a shitty job.

[AspiringProGenji]

“Don’t like it? Don’t buy it”

Yeah that hasn’t helped anything especially when publishers punish people that don’t buy it with yet more greedy practices that casuals keep falling for

Maybe it is time for us to tell the publishes “Don’t like it? Don’t implement it”

Thanks Government

[MadMax]

I take it you dont have kids, lol.

[crazyCoconuts]

I do. And they don't have my credit card "lol"

[jznrpg]

There are always a need for basic rules and regulations because companies are greedy and smart and if there isn’t anything stopping them from ripping people off they will

[MadMax]

First of all your name says it all. Seek help! Secondly, who said anything about a credit card? I dont even put my credit card on my ps4! You must be a real dummie! Kids beg and parents dont need anymore kind of pressure in the world. Especially with morons like you running around. You would know this if you even had children.

Any idiot that supports microtransactions and getting ripped off should have their head examined. If anything you should be banned for your pea sized brain!

By the look of all the disagrees you keep getting, i think it might be time to go back under your bridge troll! Lol

[thepetedog]

So legalise marijuana then. Hell, legalise all drugs. It’s the parent’s job to stop their kids buying them right?

[LoveSpuds]

You have to be a special kind of moron to believe that self regulation works in any industry and that government should not legislate.

How much safer do you think air travel would be without strict regulation, how about any kind of industrial manufacturing, how about the food and drink industries? Do you think medical research would be safer? How about workers rights if companies weren't forced to treat employees with basic rights?

The fact is, regardless of what a handful of half baked reports say, microtransactions and loot boxes are predatory and exploitative and are nothing more than gambling dressed up in a modern delivery method that falls outside the ambit of existing gambling legislation.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Finally we can get better products!!!

[MrSwankSinatra]

Not necessarily, people and publishers have essentially allowed the government into the video game space, which has been largely unregulated, expect things to be worse than before. Government is gonna do its part in securing as much monetary value from this industry.

[Magic_Spatula]

Doubt it. Companies like EA and Activison will just find another avenue for nickle and diming customers.

[Tross]

That and they can't be bothered to release better products regardless of whether they're nickel and diming us.

[ILostMyMind]

🤗

[EliteComments123]

LOL????

[DaDrunkenJester]

The bill is to "protect the children". Giving examples of Candy Crush. I don't think they know that most of the money from Candy Crush is coming from consenting adults.

"Candy Crush appeals to a wider age demographic with 42% of players between the age of 21-35 and almost 40% above 35."

https://newzoo.com/insights...

In every phone, and every consoles there are parental controls. Use them. To use my linked account to buy on my phone I need a password and to confirm some account details. Things my kids would never know. It's so damn simple.

What we need to do is just stop buying MT's and lootboxes. Getting the government involved is not the answer.

[Smokehouse]

No Thanks. It doesn’t affect me as I’m not a minor and I don’t buy loot boxes or MTs but I’m not dumb enough to believe the government is the answer to anything. Anyone who wants to use law to get rid of something so trivial is a moron or a tyrant.

This is definitely one of those “foot in the door” kind of bills. What’s next, a violence tax? Piss off and stop pretending your iron grip on industry is good intentions or a shield for kids.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

We definitely need big government stepping in to save us in our videogames. This is exactly the way it should have been handled. I'd really love to read the wording for what defines pay to win.

[FallenAngel1984]

That’s what you get when you push this shit too far

[Traecy]

I pay MTs no mind especially if it's a game that has my interest,full price is enough.

[MadMax]

Good! Maybe now these greedy developers will start making all that stuff part of the $60 game we pay for. Like the way its supposed to be.

Miss the days of purchasing a game and everything you got was on the disc. No updates, dlc or any of that bullshit! Actually got quality games.

[jjb1981]

Does candy crush still have $49.99 boosters? That's greed.

[cell989]

Yay!!

[AllMightyFox]

They may make some law focusing on protecting kids from predatory gambling llamas over all this, but most probably this Senator is doing what they all do ….

They make a bill to threaten industry practices …. lobbyists in the industry donate huge sums to Senator ,,,

Senator changes his mind and decides industry is doing fine regulating itself …. more gambling llamas

[zodiac909]

REST IN PEACE EA, & Activision.

[TopherMan]

So much for personal responsibility.

[execution17]

Rated M for Microtransactions

[Count_Bakula]

Would this mean companies like EA simply wouldn't be able to continue with the Ultimate Team card packs as they are now? That'd be amazing and possibly make them actually work on other aspects of gameplay beyond just MUT, HUT, ect.

[TheRacingX]

If you want to get rid of this type of stuff, the price of games HAS to increase, a new game has been $60 since the early '90's , which is almost 30 yrs ago, and that is only a minor increase since games have been around in the 80's. Nothing costs the same as it did 30 yrs ago... An Atari 2600 cost $199 in 1980, thats approx $800 in today money.... sorry, but if you want to eliminate this crap, ante up.

[LeoDDestroyer]

People don't want to hear the truth man, they just want their cake and eat it too.

[Minute Man 721]

Games hit $60 last gen unless you're talking about the N64 because psx games were $40

[TheRacingX]

3D0 games were $59 back in 95, Saturn and PS1 games were $59 until about 97-98 then they lowered them to $50 to kill off Jaguar and 3D0 , 3rd party N64 games were $69 , hell I remember paying $69 for Killer Instinct on SNES....games were $60 for quite some time, not last gen

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Game dev cost has lessen because of MTs it's all marketing that's raising the cost

[Ristul]

Cost of games should decrease, as the market is much bigger now compared to the 80's. Digital distribution should be even cheaper, as the cost of printing CDs or carts goes away. Companies are making a lot of money as it is, the problem is that the big publishers want growth to please shareholders, so even IF price should go down, it will not. Instead, we get microtransactions to create even more growth.

[TheRacingX]

How would it decrease ??? The teams needed to make big budget games is upwards of 200+ people, games in the 90's were made by 10 people max, in the 80's one or two people made a single game.... these people dont work for free, they get paid pretty good salaries. There were reports it cost Rockstar $265 Million to make GTA5, more for Red Dead 2....people on this site need to understand the economics of the gaming industry. Of course publishers need to make money and developers need to get paid or there will cease to be an industry. Is there gouging going on by some publishers? absolutely, should it be stopped yep, how do you stop it? dont buy the crap, nothing speaks louder than you not giving them your money for worthless crap.

[TheColbertinator]

Some accounts of EA employees are roaming this article and it's comments section O_o

[Minute Man 721]

Government needs to stay out. People need to not support these companies. It's that simple

[Tross]

A US senator doing something good for gaming? The world must be ending. But yeah, I wish the practice of putting loot boxes and pay to win elements in retail releases would be banned, so I support this.

[Sophisticated_Chap]

The Democrats wont support it, because they're more interested in politics over the good of the country.

[BuildTheWall]

As a Conservative I feel that instead of Government getting involved in something like this , because once something like this is eventually passed in is only a matter of time before the control what we are allowed to play.

[BlaqMagiq1]

This would be a great day for gaming if this passed.

[AK91]

Excellent

[TargusX]

Some progress at last!

[DarkKaine]

M. Bison: YES!! YESSSSS!!
Hope the entire f2p industry burns.

[DJStotty]

It's quite simple.

Ban ALL Microtransactions in games that cost the customer, AAA games etc. Revert back to the old way of paying for DLC, or expansion packs.

Only allow lootboxes/Microtransactions in F2P games, this is their source of income.

This will give the developers who create games and release them for free, getting the recognition that they deserve for their efforts.

In no way should we have to pay £50 for a game, and then have to open boxes in the chance of getting an item.

[trooper_]

A step in the right direction.

[Hellbound1978]

This Senator gets ushered to the font of the line called 'Life'. I don't care why he's doing it as long as it removes this dark cloud over gaming that's rained suckage long enough.

[Hellbound1978]

You could use a real estate analogy. Game companies have become like drug dealers preying on the weak minded and addicted. When a community gets rundown and overrun with 'addicts', it brings down the market value for all those nearby. The dealers aren't going to leave when they're making money hand over fist, and the addicts just can't stop themselves. So what's there to do other than report the problem and hope law/government fix it, or give up and move to another town. I'm personally against government getting too involved in anything 'gaming', but I think I could let this one slide. LOL

[Hedstrom]

Sounds great!

[JokerBoy422]

Companies will find some other avenue to rape consumers. Get ready for basic editions of games to cost $100+ and the deluxe collectors editions $200+ lol.

[Mroc13]

First world problems lol

[jeki]

I don't want the government interfering in video games or social media.

[ReVibe]

Don't care how old you are, anyone who drops a dime on Candy Crush, let alone $150, is a tool in the shed.

[Cacolaco]

Everything should be free, with no microtransactions. Then the gaming industry would be awesome.

In fact, the government should just develop the games, too and then roll those microtransactions into our tax bill...

[Retroman]

Dang, was hoping Ea finally got the hint to remove Microtransaction pay-to-win out of Starwars and NFS games.
Knowing Ea they'll find a loophole.