Outfits to dress up his favorite character, weapons, or even extra lives. Since the early 2000s, the video game industry has been invaded by “loot boxes”, chests with random rewards, for a real sum of money. A business model that has developed thanks to the development of video games on online digital platforms. “Some have realized that they are earning more through this loot box system than from the pure sale of their game. Since players never know what they will win, it encourages them to continue their purchases , and therefore to play”, exposes Oscar Lemaire, independent journalist, specialist in the sector.
In 2020, game publishers earned more than $15 billion from these random rewards, according to research firm Juniper Research. The following year, Electronic Arts (EA), which marketed the hit football simulation Fifameanwhile, made more than $1.62 billion from in-game purchases, or 29% of its total revenue, according to the Norwegian Consumer Council.
Among the game modes concerned by these rewards, the “Fifa Ultimate Team” (FUT), whose goal is to compose the best football team possible in order to win competitions. To do this, the player must acquire cards – from football players, coaches or stadiums – through random packs, a large part of which are chargeable. Fifa points, the in-game currency for purchases, then cost between €1 and €100, depending on the quantity desired.
“Aggressive Marketing”
Last June, the consumer defense association UFC-Que Choisir, as well as 19 of its European counterparts, put EA on notice, denouncing a “aggressive marketing” et “opaque prices”. “Everything is done to make players forget that they are spending real euros. Like these Fifa points, which will dissociate them from reality, and generate in some, especially the most fragile such as minors, a real addiction ”, warns Raphaël Bartlomé, head of the association’s legal department. In 2021, a study by the University Center for General Medicine and Public Health in Lausanne showed that young people had difficulties “to resist temptation” in-app purchases, due in particular to the randomness of loot boxes.
“You have to have the best card, the strongest player. Some players are willing to spend astronomical sums, especially since new cards are constantly being offered”develops Karim Morand-Lahouazi, a lawyer at the Paris bar who sued EA in 2020, believing that the company offers “a hidden lottery”. In total, fifteen complaints were filed. If the instruction is in progress, EA had already spoken in 2019 about these loot boxes, stating that “It’s not about gambling” but only from “surprise mechanics”.
Legislation under discussion
What does French law say? According to article L. 320-1 of the internal security code, “gambling and games of chance are deemed to be, and prohibited as such, all operations offered to the public, under any name whatsoever, to give rise to the hope of a gain which would be due, even partially, to chance and for which a financial sacrifice is demanded of the participants”. However, in the case of loot boxes, “a virtual object is not in itself a gain, except in the case where the game publisher organizes its resale”reminds The cross the National Gaming Authority, although it recognizes “a risk of addiction” who “Most often concerns minors”.
An observation that does not share Perrine Peltier, lawyer in intellectual property and new technologies: “The law aims for a gain, without qualifying the nature of it. There is therefore a margin of possible interpretation. » In a column published in The world on July 27, the lawyer calls for a “Legislation protecting the consumer, the vulnerable player, but perhaps above all legislation that makes game publishers responsible. » For now, only an indication “In-app purchases: includes random content” is imposed on publishers on game covers. In Europe, Belgium and the Netherlands have chosen to ban loot boxes.