EA: Star Wars Battlefront II Loot Boxes 'Are Not Gambling' - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 15 November 2017 / 3,245 Views
Belgium's gambling authority is currently investigating Star Wars Battlefront II and Overwatch to determine if the loot boxes in the games are gambling.
Electronic Arts has released a statement saying that the loot boxes are not a form of gambling.
"Creating a fair and fun game experience is of critical importance to EA," reads a statement from Electronic Arts to GameSpot. "The crate mechanics of Star Wars Battlefront II are not gambling. A player’s ability to succeed in the game is not dependent on purchasing crates. Players can also earn crates through playing the game and not spending any money at all. Once obtained, players are always guaranteed to receive content that can be used in game."
Star Wars Battlefront II will launch for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows PC on November 17.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
More Articles
The reasoning that EA uses is absurd. They state that it is not gambling, because you can earn in game credits to purchase the loot crates.
That is like saying you can earn money without gambling.
They also state that the player is guaranteed content.
This is besides the point. The likelihood of whether it is anything worthwhile is a complete gamble, it is left to chance. It would be like if casinos started to hand out participation ribbons and state that it is no longer gambling because you are guaranteed something.
EA is complete bullocks.
"Once obtained, players are always guaranteed to receive content that can be used in game." I bet what's traditionally considered gambling would still be considered gambling even if every player was GUARANTEED to win 0.01€ - that is, even if they were guaranteed to receive content that can be used in the game. There isn't even anything to debate about this specific argument - it's clearly wrong.
Gambling or not, they should be outlawed anyway.
He's technically right (at least by US standards), and it's why such systems have survived multiple challenges in the past. I recall them looking into Pokemon Cards as well... Generally, if you're guaranteed to receive something and the rewards aren't actual real-world currency, it tends not to be considered "gambling". I mean, putting semantics aside it is clearly gambling in spirit, but semantics are what matter most in legal matters.
For the record though, I think lootboxes in non free-to-play games are horseshit and am quite disappointed that I'll have to pass on Battlefront II weeks after passing on Shadows of Mordor, two games that look very good were it not for the lootboxes and paywalls that compromise the experience.
If that's the case we really need a new classification for these types of systems that still falls under a similar umbrella and should be regulated or at the very least part of a Mature or even Adults Only rating.
So, i disagree, though ofc i'm not familiar with the ins of american law, but the definition is not correct. Card games you buy in real life are a physical good that is then given artificial value by the people who own or want to own them. But at the end of the day you paid for X cards and that is what you got.
Electronic numbers are not physical goods. You are not actually purchasing a physical product. You are buying the chance to get something with virtual value but you will never get an imediate product for your money. You may get something of value, or nothing. That is exactly like casino gambling. It needs to be regulated.
I mean, this isn't too different than what you said. But my point is that if it costs real money (and inserting a secondary currency is just trying to cheat the law) and you don't get an actual physical product you expect to have, i don't see how it isn't gambling.
It's exactly like selling those pokemon cards online virtually with no actual physical card. If that's not gambling, the world is just wrong. Direct cash is not the only thing with value.
It doesn't matter if there's actual money involved or not. As a PROFESSIONAL LAWYER will argue in this podcast: http://pca.st/cr8p, if the VALUE of items received is less than what you spent on them, then it essentially cost you money. Hence the "you're always guaranteed to win something" argument is moot.
And the trading card example doesn't work because you can always trade or sell cards you get, you can't sell or exchange items from the BF II loot boxes.
"Creating a fair and fun game experience is of critical importance to EA," I would rather stop playing video games than to believe this crap
I can earn crates within Heroes and OW without spending money on either, but the thing is, the process of earning them gets slower and slower as I level up, to a point where the slow progression makes buying said crates the default option, if you want to gain them at the pace you were once able to obtain them.
We can earn crates in most games without paying, but like I said, progression is key, and slowing it down, to make those gems/shards/crystals look tempting, is their main goal. Otherwise they would make it so we'd never ever have to buy their currencies, which would then and should lead them to doing away with them entirely, but they won't, because they want you to buy them. Loot boxes didn't exist before, because they didn't have a system in place to make them exist, but now they do, doing away with said system would effectively kill the very reason for them to exist in the first place.
Sure, it ain't gambling if the things that come out of the loot boxes are genuinely worthless, like vending machine toys traditionally were.
It becomes an issue in the case of CS:GO when 13-year-olds can gamble on getting items that are worth over $50.000.
