The EU has apparently just declared lootbox / gacha games outlawed

[RiO]

The EU Commission and the Consumer Protection Cooperation Network (CPCN), which is a formal body of the EU composed of national enforcing authorities, have today released a new document issuing legal guidance in the form of key principles for the use of virtual currency in games:

https://commission.europa.eu/document/8af13e88-6540-436c-b137-9853e7fe866a_en

Some of the highlights and key take-aways:

1. All in-game items purchasable potentially wholly or in part through any virtual currency that is purchasable through real-world currency are required to list their price as a direct conversion to real-world currency based on the nominal real world price of the virtual currency.
   
2. The nominal price of virtual currency is the price for which said currency is normally purchased, without any special sales prices, deals, bonuses, or other applying.
   
3. No more preset bundle sizes for virtual currencies. You have to be able to buy the exact amount you want or need.
   
4. Virtual currency itself is deemed a digital service that is covered by consumer rights legislation. The 14 day right of withdrawal applies. This right of withdrawal cannot be waived. In particular any terms of contract that attempt to do so or try to limit the consumer's right to return within 14 days any remaining amount of unspent virtual currency are called out explicitly as advised against.
   
5. And the big one:
   Any gameplay mechanics that have the object or effect of exploiting emotional, psychological or other weaknesses consumers may have to try and push them to spending in unnatural ways, explicitly called out with the terms 'whaling' and 'whales' gamers are familiar with, are deemed in violation of the unfair commercial practices directive.

The CPCN is basically the joint body of enforcing authorities for consumer rights and the consumer market, similar to how the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) is the joint body of enforcing authorities for the GDPR.

In short, the EU is calling open season on gacha, lootboxes and freemium scumbaggery at last.

Makes me wonder how this will reflect on games on Steam.
Probably going to be a bit of a culling in the freemium segment.



[EDIT]
Also, on a humorous note: there's a small win for the Stop Killing/Destroying Games initiative in there as well.
It is the position of the EU Commission and the CPCN that you 'own' your in game purchases, in the sense that you have a right to access and use that content, which cannot be unilaterally taken away.

[MonkehMaster]

yes, ban all this skin crap and market, all it does is feed a majority of the rampant cheating, phishing and scamming in gaming, not to mention the predatory greed in this unregulated gaming industry.

not from EU btw.

[RiO]

HikariLight lähetti viestin:

T9 lähetti viestin:

EU is the light

The EU is going to run all non EU businesses out of the EU.
The EU is so consumer focused that the businesses are going to leave due to little to no profit or rights.

Not happening.
Explained before already why:

RiO lähetti viestin:

The real risk of abandoning the EU market is that it still involves a revenue shrink. So either the existing mobile game companies considering this would downsize, or they would have to double down and become even more exploitative in the remaining markets. (Protip: it's invariably going to be option number two. It always is.)

Meanwhile, other companies will sprout up to recognize the gap left behind and try to fill that. Which means eventually they create compelling mobile games that find new business models which don't stiff consumers (as much) as the old ones.

And once they reach a moderate level of success, they'll want to also expand to other regions. Like the US market, which at that point will be saturated with the new flavor of turbo-aggressively monitized games, to make up for loss of the 40% of the lost EU market.
And these newcomers will easily take market-share there, simply due to being much more consumer-friendly options; actually being fun rather than psychological trickery, etc. Basically, like Nintendo recovered and in one fell swoop took the whole home-console market from Atari, to paint an analogy.

Which will put those companies putting out those aggressively monitized titles into the US market in a pinch. Either they match their new EU brethern, or bend out. But matching them means completely 180-ing on their entire design philosophy at that point, which leaned even harder into aggressive monitization practices after they decided they didn't have the liquidity available to take the plunge and pivot their model before -- which is what lead them to leave the EU market in the first place and then double-down on their existing model.

In short: they have at that point only two options left, with one similar outcome: dissolve and disband; or die a slow painful death as market share shrinks, revenue dwindles and eventually hits the tipping point where expenditures top income and the whole starts its rapid down-spiral into insolvency.


There's probably very few business or market analysts who would risk a full mass exit from the EU and leaving behind a 'power vacuum' in their wake, because of that particular doomsday scenario. You don't give up turf. You simply don't.

[MonkehMaster]

HikariLight lähetti viestin:

T9 lähetti viestin:

EU is the light

The EU is going to run all non EU businesses out of the EU.
The EU is so consumer focused that the businesses are going to leave due to little to no profit or rights.

think you forgot that, the consoomer is the ones buying from companies... you greed all their money, then you still won't have a business...

maybe quality, low cost, with zero bs, might be what companies should move back to, cause they are running themselves into the ground, as well as the industry and are somehow blind to that fact.... gaming wise...

"don't bite, the hand, that feeds"

won't talk about jobs in America... you work for basically pennies and they still raise prices, work you to death, some even (factory wise and funny enough was a Canadian company) have no heating, or ac... imagine wearing winter clothes in a safety required environment in winter inside, while working.. freezing and sweating, imagine summer and it's over 100f.. ya they expect you to work or be fired no matter weather, or anything even if it harms you, they play games with your pay, benefits, vacation time, PTO, ect..

some, only hire through temp agencies, they let you sit in those without hiring on, to save money, not paying, no benefits, outrageously low PTO hr-worked hours, so they don't accumulate, points system to keep you low on the totem, by letting you go and allowing you to come back in 6 months to start from the bottom again, loop holes galore.

not to mention, loads of them having various weeks off, where you get paid nothing, or forced to use vacation, or use unemployment, all cause they are constantly either out of orders, or are ahead of schedule... factories (even big ones), smaller not in the higher brackets of pay... make crap.

so what are these companies really doing and why do they think, they can treat customers as if they don't matter, last I checked... they need our money to be a business, moving else where and treating those people the same, will result in the same exact thing, no one buying, no one working for ya, no business.

[Princess Luna]

gacha outlawed?
If poeple like spending money why stop them?

[1200V2]

It is all smoke and mirrors. If they regulate how to purchase items. But nothing about the ownership of what is being bought in the long run.

And for what is being a pixel the price of that pixel is sometimes absurdly high. And if someone wants to pay that price this is not going to change that.

And in the end when the servers close any value of items, coins, skins. It will be gone and you have wasted your money.

[salva早晨享用的咖啡]

games industry geoblock eu. small market anyway

[salva早晨享用的咖啡]

Pierre_The_Scumbag lähetti viestin:

Princess Luna lähetti viestin:

gacha outlawed?
If poeple like spending money why stop them?

It's more along the lines of protecting people (vulnerable) who don't understand how they are being manipulated (by industry created psychological techniques) into spending money.

it is for control peoples spending. authoritarian.

[Start_Running]

salva早晨享用的咖啡 lähetti viestin:

games industry geoblock eu. small market anyway

Oh they won't EU players will just find they wind up paying a higher direct cost for the shinnies without any possibility of getting them at a lower cost.

Or they don't have any way to get the items beyond trade or market pruchases.

Even for the virtual currency since the minimum price for a single unit will always be determined by the cost of payment processing..

This is the kind of short sighted thinking that plagues many governing bodies.

[KalGimpa]

Pierre_The_Scumbag lähetti viestin:

Princess Luna lähetti viestin:

gacha outlawed?
If poeple like spending money why stop them?

It's more along the lines of protecting people (vulnerable) who don't understand how they are being manipulated (by industry created psychological techniques) into spending money.

If games change their rating to 18+ (or adult) with the correct security systems, companies can avoid this most of the issues from this.

it is

once again

the many that can control themselves being controlled because of the few that cannot

[Start_Running]

KalCuey lähetti viestin:

Pierre_The_Scumbag lähetti viestin:

It's more along the lines of protecting people (vulnerable) who don't understand how they are being manipulated (by industry created psychological techniques) into spending money.

If games change their rating to 18+ (or adult) with the correct security systems, companies can avoid this most of the issues from this.

it is

once again

the many that can control themselves being controlled because of the few that cannot

Basically this. I mean It's all well to use ophrases like manipulative but that just puts oneself in the role of a victim with no power...

Being addicted or prone to addiction doeesn't stop you from taking control of yourself
To claim instead that the world should make accomodations for you is like thos fat acceptance youtubers who insist that buildings should have wider hallways.

[RiO]

salva早晨享用的咖啡 lähetti viestin:

games industry geoblock eu. small market anyway

The EU market represents ~40% of global revenue in the video-gaming market.
It's not a small market at all.

Start_Running lähetti viestin:

Even for the virtual currency since the minimum price for a single unit will always be determined by the cost of payment processing.

The EU doesn't legally allow surcharges on purchases with most types of credit or debit cards.
You could argue base price be raised to compensate though, but that also means the legally required reference prices in real-world currency that will be required on in-game shops taking that virtual currency, will also have to be raised accordingly.

KalCuey lähetti viestin:

the many that can control themselves being controlled because of the few that cannot

Reductio ad absurdum: "Companies should be free to put poisonous chemicals in food! You should just figure out what chemicals are safe to consume on your own!"

[Tito Shivan]

RiO lähetti viestin:

KalCuey lähetti viestin:

the many that can control themselves being controlled because of the few that cannot

Reductio ad absurdum: "Companies should be free to put poisonous chemicals in food! You should just figure out what chemicals are safe to consume on your own!"

There's a joke that says:
"A libertarian walks into a bar. Since there's no market regulations he's served tainted alcohol in his drink. The libertarian dies."

[KalGimpa]

RiO lähetti viestin:

salva早晨享用的咖啡 lähetti viestin:

games industry geoblock eu. small market anyway

The EU market represents ~40% of global revenue in the video-gaming market.
It's not a small market at all.

Start_Running lähetti viestin:

Even for the virtual currency since the minimum price for a single unit will always be determined by the cost of payment processing.

The EU doesn't legally allow surcharges on purchases with most types of credit or debit cards.
You could argue base price be raised to compensate though, but that also means the legally required reference prices in real-world currency that will be required on in-game shops taking that virtual currency, will also have to be raised accordingly.

KalCuey lähetti viestin:

the many that can control themselves being controlled because of the few that cannot

Reductio ad absurdum: "Companies should be free to put poisonous chemicals in food! You should just figure out what chemicals are safe to consume on your own!"

do not put words in my mouth

i said that i am being restricted again because of people that cannot control themselves

not one thing about companies

people that cannot control their spending need to learn to control it

not make it harder for me to spend mine

people that cannot control their use of pills need to get help

not make me feel like a criminal because i need those meds

those people need and deserve help

instead of making them get help

they are told it is not their fault and the rest of us are smacked with restrictions

[Ben Lubar]

Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop has been downloaded 563,035 times from Western Europe and 4,796,963 times from all regions combined, in case anyone wants to do some statistics (it's about 11.7% of all downloads).

[Milann]

Boblin the Goblin lähetti viestin:

Pierre_The_Scumbag lähetti viestin:

This right here is a banger !

If it actually did anything.

It's literally just calling for further assessment without actually defining anything. It doesn't even lay out examples of the exploitative practices.

it would be fun