ESA: Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft And Nintendo To Require Loot Box Odds Disclosure

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Today (8 August 2019), a number of major international video game companies announced new initiatives to help consumers make informed choices about their purchases. Many of the member companies of the ESA and IGEA, including console makers and publishers, will implement new policies to inform consumers aboutthe relative rarity or probability of obtaining randomised virtual items for their video games (e.g. loot boxes). All of the major consoles have agreed to make all games on their platforms disclose lootbox odds, with the hope that this happens sometime in 2020. The ESA (Entertainment Software Association) stated that Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony are currently creating policies which require the disclosure of loot box odds for their consoles. Entertainment Software Association chief counsel of tech policy Michael Warnecke announced the news this morning at the Federal Trade Commission's Inside the Game workshop on the loot box issue.

A statement from the ESA reads:

"The major console makers – Sony Interactive Entertainment, operator of the PlayStation platform, Microsoft, operator of Xbox and Windows, and Nintendo, operator of the Nintendo Switch gaming platform – are committing to new platform policies that will require paid loot boxes in games developed for their platforms to disclose information on the relative rarity or probability of obtaining randomized virtual items. These required disclosures will also apply to game updates, if the update adds new loot box features. The precise timing of this disclosure requirement is still being worked out, but the console makers are targeting 2020 for the implementation of the policy."

"In addition, several of ESA's publisher members already disclose the relative rarity or probability of obtaining in-game virtual items from purchased loot boxes, and other major publishers have agreed to do so no later than the end of 2020. Together, these publishers include Activision Blizzard, BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment, Bethesda, Bungie, Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Take-Two Interactive, Ubisoft, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, and Wizards of the Coast."

The detrimental effects loot boxes have on players have increasingly become more of an issue and discussion topic around the industry. In fact, Belgium and the Netherlands last year both stated that they consider loot boxes to be gambling, and are thus illegal.

You can read the full statement from the ESA here.

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