Virtual currencies or other loot boxes are common in video games these days and we are all used to them. That doesn’t change the fact that these are more than just questionable practices to empty a player’s wallet. Society UFC Que Choisir tackles the issue today and commissions publisher EA.
It is the company of twenty other European associations that the UFC has condemned EA practices. Games like FIFA, The Sims or APEX Legends stand out in particular for the use of virtual currencies.
UFC wants more transparency in EA games
When you want to buy something in-game like the FUT card pack in FIFA 22, you don’t pay in euros, but with virtual currency… can be easily purchased with euros. Here’s a two-step process that blurs tracks, according to the UFC:
“The video game industry has engaged in a clever maneuver by dividing the purchase of in-game content into two phases. The consumer has to purchase a certain amount of virtual currency that can only be used in-game before spending this pot. they don’t bother to write the price in euros: everything is arranged to make the consumer forget the price of the content they pay for. »
That’s why the UFC and other associations are asking net price display banning every single item in the game, even those apps:
“Faced with these new methods, UFC-Que Choisir challenges 10 video game publishers on their implementation and issues an official notice to publisher EA Games, the publisher of Fifa, Battlefield and NHL, to display the prices in Euros for the content it sells in its video games. »
EA is aimed here, but The UFC is also calling on other game publishers to reason.
These commercial applications have gradually become established in the video game environment and are no longer accepted by gamers, although they are not. However, we must not forget that this unscrupulous methods to steal your money, you even paid full price for a game. Virtual currency is often accompanied by Lootboxes, these “gift” bags are synonymous with lottery.
Some countries are already completely and simply Ban these apps on their territory. For example, this is the case of Belgium and the Netherlands. Publishers cannot stream certain games there. We recently saw it in the Benelux with the unwanted Diablo Immortal. If this arrangement becomes the norm around the world, developers will have no choice but to simply remove the loot boxes.
Source : What to Choose UFC
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