Starting next year, Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony will put into effect a policy that requires games by all publishers on their platforms to disclose odds on any loot boxes that they might contain to consumers, to give anybody engaging with the mechanic a fair and transparent idea of what the chances are for them ending up with the product that they’re hoping to purchase with their money.
In the list of the publishers that had signed on with this, several major names across the industry were included, including the likes of EA, Activision, Bandai Namco, Take-Two Interactive, and many others. Among a few notable omissions, though, was Epic Games (hough they have started to enact policies against loot boxes in their games of late – most recently with Rocket League).
When contacted by GamesIndustry for a comment on what their stance on loot boxes will go going forward though, Epic Games reaffirmed that they remain committed to “transparency”. “Earlier this year, the Fortnite Save the World team made a change that showed players every item that they would get in a paid llama before opening it,” the company said in a statement. “Earlier this week, the team at Psyonix announced a similar change coming later this year to paid crates in Rocket League. Going forward, we’re committed to the same transparency for player purchases in all Epic Games titles.”
Meanwhile, THQ Nordic has also responded, saying that they have no intention of even implementing “casino-styled mechanics” in their games.
“We do not plan to implement casino-styled mechanics in our games,” said the publisher.
The policy is definitely a step in the right direction, and the inclusion of the industry’s biggest publishers is encouraging to see as well. The likes of EA and Take-Two have both, in recent months, said that they don’t see anything wrong with loot boxes, so it should be interesting to see how they proceed going forward in light of that.
Stay tuned to GamingBolt for continued updates.