Electronic Arts on collision course with Belgian authorities over loot boxes
Games developer refuses to remove controversial items from FIFA 18
Video game publisher Electronic Arts (EA) is reportedly the target of Belgian prosecutors over its refusal to remove loot boxes from the Belgian version of its FIFA 18 game.
According to reports in the Niewsblad and Metro newspapers, Belgium’s Gaming Commission (BGC) has filed an official complaint with Belgian prosecutors pending possible legal action over its contravention of Belgian law.
The BGC outlawed the use of loot boxes in video games in April, following concerns that they were a form of gambling. It conducted research into four of the most popular online games which offer loot boxes: Overwatch, Star Wars Battlefront II, FIFA 18 and CS:GO, to ascertain if they fit the definition of a game of chance.
According to the 1999 Belgian Gaming Act, games of chance are defined as “any game by which a stake of any kind is committed, the consequence of which is either loss of the stake by at least one of the players or a gain of any kind in favour of at least one of the players, or organisers of the game and in which chance is a factor, albeit ancillary, for the conduct of the game, determination of the winner or fixing of the gain.”
In analysing FIFA 18, the BGC confirmed that there was an element of chance, that a win and loss may be experienced by the player depending on the prize given and that although the loot boxes cannot directly be purchased with real currency, the in-game currency and mechanics constitutes a wager.
In its conclusions, the BGC said: “The paid loot boxes in the examined games Overwatch, FIFA 18 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive fit the description of a game of chance because all of the constitutive elements of gambling are present” and as such were illegal under Belgian gaming law.
Blizzard, the company behind Overwatch, later removed all loot boxes from the Belgian facing version of its game.
However, at the time of the BGC’s report, EA CEO Andrew Wilson dismissed the BGC’s assertions and refused to remove the boxes, saying: “We don’t believe that FIFA Ultimate Team or loot boxes are gambling firstly because players always receive a specified number of items in each pack, and secondly we don’t provide or authorize any way to cash out or sell items or virtual currency for real money.”
No comment has been made by EA or the BGC since news of the investigation went public.