A few days ago both Blizzard and EA removed the option of buying loot boxes in Belgium following the ruling that the practice broke Belgium’s Gaming Act. The ruling stated that loot boxes were a form of gambling. Now 2K Games has announced its compliance with the ruling and has removed the ability to purchase game packs with real money.
However, 2K Games isn’t happy about the ruling and state they will continue to speak to the local authorities about the issue. There is a bit of a weird plea to the community at the end of the statement asking those who support microtransactions in Belgium to get in touch with their local government representative and make it known they want the option to buy in-game goods with real money.
The full statement is below:
The Belgium Gaming Commission (BGC) has stated that games which include certain ‘loot box’ style mechanics violate gambling laws in Belgium. While we disagree with this position, we are working to comply with the BGC’s current interpretation of these laws. As a result, we have made some local changes to the MyTeam mode. These changes are necessary in order for us to accommodate the BGC’s interpretation of the Belgian Gaming Act. Specifically, we will be turning off the ability to purchase packs with premium (non-earned) currency/VC.Gamers are still able to acquire packs with MyTeam points.
We will be continuing conversations with the BGC in order to explain our view on how NBA 2K and MyTeam pack purchases already comply with local laws. If you agree, we recommend that you contact your local government representative to communicate your opinion. We will keep the community posted on any developments. We apologize for any inconvenience.
You may remember a certain review from last year which called out the sheer amount of microtransactions within NBA 2K18 so of course 2K will disagree with a law that impacts a part of their income. They’re a business after all, but asking the community to back them in this seems a bit off.
Source: 2K
Adrian Burrows
I can’t see 2k getting a lot of support on this issue.
TheShepanator
Great that they’re getting slammed for this.
Lootboxes are exploitative and an obvious form of gambling, even if the contents have no direct monetary value.
There is a way to do lootboxes right (e.g. untradable cosmetics only) but I wouldn’t be sad to see them totally banned altogether either