EA may not be willing to stop with the lootboxes even on the heels of Belgium outright outlawing them and making them illegal, but Belgium, in turn, isn’t just going to go along with the publisher’s exploitative practices either. Apparently, the publisher may face a criminal lawsuit in the European country, with Belgium’s Gaming Commission gearing up to initiate legal proceedings against them.

According to Metro Time, in fact, EA has already received a notice from the Belgian Gaming Commission, with the file now being in the hands of the Brussels public prosecutor, who is conducting a criminal investigation- so it sounds like that may have escalated a bit too quickly for EA.

The smartest thing for EA to do here would be not to boast about how it will carry on forward with lootboxes like it did, but rather, to disable loot boxes and microtransactions for all copies sold in Belgium, much like 2K and Blizzard have done with their games.

Let’s see how this plays out.

The loot box controversy that stated as a result of the egregious monetization in Star Wars Battlefront 2, and the uproar and backlash around it, has led to actual legislation being introduced for games with monetization around the world. Netherlands has already declared that loot boxes are illegal- and now Belgium has joined the fray, confirming that loot boxes are games of chances, and therefore gambling- and as a result, illegal.

A statement from Minister of Justice Koen Geens said that unless games FIFA 18, Overwatch, and Counter Strike GO remove loot boxes, their publishers “risk a prison sentence of up to five years and a fine of up to 800,000 euros”.

If children are involved with playing those games, those punishments can be doubled, Greens added. Belgium expressed a particular concern about the impact loot boxes have on young people. “It is often children who come into contact with such systems and we cannot allow that,” Geens warned.

Ironically, the only game found to not be guilty in Belgium’s investigation was Star Wars Battlefront 2– because EA removed all loot boxes from it after the backlash.

Still, it remains to be seen now how Belgium and Netherlands’ rulings will influence things. Will publishers stop selling their games in those territories? Make alternate versions of their games that strip out the loot boxes? Just remove loot boxes from their games entirely? I eagerly hope it is that last one.