Sell their skins and expansions on the platform stores for set amounts of real dollars.
There should be no in-game purchases and no virtual currency.
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EA budges, will stop selling FIFA 19 points in Belgium starting January 31
- Thread starter kubus
- Start date
There should be no in-game purchases and no virtual currency.
Too bad neither 2k or EA have changed their in game economies for the countries for these ganes. They wont until much bigger countries that give them most of their revenue take a legal hit.
Its a start, but I dont see much coming from this for awhile other than if a Belgium player connects to someone else outside the country is going to get smoked by a god tier team.
Least they could do isbsplit the servers between paid players and players who are just playing without blowing wads of money
Its a start, but I dont see much coming from this for awhile other than if a Belgium player connects to someone else outside the country is going to get smoked by a god tier team.
Least they could do isbsplit the servers between paid players and players who are just playing without blowing wads of money
Not even close. Other EU countries have already given EA a pass with governing bodies examining the issue and saying the existence of lootboxes alone doesnt break any laws. Belgium being isolated was always the likely outcome just like they were isolated by other publishers.
They engage with it because It's psychological tuned to make it compulsive to a certain type of person, I think fun is probably subjective, I guess if you ask anyone why they do something compulsively, whether it's good or bad for them, they'll say they do it for 'fun'.
Pretty much this, it's still a huge achievement but will we see the same action take place in some of the "bigger" countries?
People don't abuse addictive drugs because their addicted, they do it because it makes them feel good.
I am a little out of touch on this. So why have they banned loot boxes? Is it the gambling aspect?
Probably not. Gambling addicts wouldn't like it if all gambling shops were closed either, doesn't mean that it shouldn't happen necessarily.
What's bad about buying card packs?
Ah yes, the old "loot boxes = cocaine" argument. Don't bother.
'Random' loot boxes are just a form of gambling so should be regulated and policed as such. That means the same age restrictions, the same warnings etc.
Nothing, if they are regulated by the proper regulations, and not peddled to minors.
I'm not up to speed with the ads in children's programmes in Belgium, but I would safely wager there are no ads for Fifa Points/FUT packs. How are they peddled to minors again? Because children play the games and access those modes? Also, quick reminder that parental controls (and, y'know, not tying a credit card to a children's account) are things that exist.
It's the whole gambling vs not gambling arguement, Belgium obviously think they are, only time will tell if other countries follow suit, or EA decide to regulate.
me and my friends been playing fifas for literal decades (still got my fifa 96 megadrive cart and my road to WC 98 disc) and we never touched FUT
dont pull stuff out of your arse
even low spender/no spender FUT players would be happy with the end of MTXs since they wont keep getting demolished by johnny "i spent 5k on my team" doe every three matches
WE'RE NOW HEADING FOR A VIDEOGAME MARKET CRASH! NO MORE GAMES! EVERYONE UNEMPLOYED!
OUR HOBBY IS UNDER THREAT FROM THE GLOBALISTS!
DAMN THE EU! #VOTEBREXIT
If you want this shit in FIFA it should be regulated. Considering games won't do it themselves and they won't compromise with a Government, enjoy final solutions as strict as this.
edit: And no, this is not acceptable self-regulation
Odds need to be exact, and preferably PEGI/ESRB should have to spend the money and resources needed to set up an independent adjudicator to have proof of drop rates from the game's code. If you want people gambling, you should reap the same consequences other industries have to abide by to stop the "house" having a disgusting amount of power/manipulation over people.
OUR HOBBY IS UNDER THREAT FROM THE GLOBALISTS!
DAMN THE EU! #VOTEBREXIT
If you want this shit in FIFA it should be regulated. Considering games won't do it themselves and they won't compromise with a Government, enjoy final solutions as strict as this.
edit: And no, this is not acceptable self-regulation
Odds need to be exact, and preferably PEGI/ESRB should have to spend the money and resources needed to set up an independent adjudicator to have proof of drop rates from the game's code. If you want people gambling, you should reap the same consequences other industries have to abide by to stop the "house" having a disgusting amount of power/manipulation over people.
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It's been a few years since I played FIFA so they might have tweaked earn rates, but yes, back in like 15 it took a silly amount of time to earn coins for packs from actually playing.
They can still play it for FUT, just not buy points and gamble with it.
While this is great what actually happens to games where loot boxes are removed for Belgium in this case. Does this mean they accelerate the normal methods to acquire the ingame items for them or do they literally just block access to loot boxes and that's it?
Block access to lootboxes and thats it obviously
Wouldnt be exactly fair if belgian players started getting increased points for free while the rest of the world had to pay would it
Man FUT would be cool if I could opt into just palying against people who didn't spend any money...
But then again it's fair for all when people with enough money do so?
For the logic of microtransactions, sure? You pay for benefits, thats basically what they are there for, whether we like them or not. Anyone stepping into FUT knows (or should be better informed) about this.
If only EA could make a 100% MTXs free FUT mode and leave the paid mode for cash cows to duke it out and see who can waste more money with virtual players it would be ideal.
Depends how desperate you are to build your team. It's not hard to earn 50 - 100k a week without spending any money.
And even that would probably not be enough because of how easy it would be to cheat the system as long as the devs/publishers are creating and implementing the algorithms thereof. "Yes, sir. The version that's live is totally compiled from this legitimate source code right here... " chuckles
You'd basically require a system where only some independent institution is actually capable of entering and altering the odds for games like that and that sure doesn't seem feasible in the near future.
This is just EA making a power move, isn't it?
Lootboxes themselves, like gambling, aren't outlawed in Belgium, they just need to adhere to certain restrictions, regulations, and taxes. By just saying 'nah, we outtie', they're basically sending warning shot to other nations that they don't consider it gambling and that any country who doesn't agree might lose potential future revenue/taxes/etc.
Lootboxes themselves, like gambling, aren't outlawed in Belgium, they just need to adhere to certain restrictions, regulations, and taxes. By just saying 'nah, we outtie', they're basically sending warning shot to other nations that they don't consider it gambling and that any country who doesn't agree might lose potential future revenue/taxes/etc.
On the one hand, this is awesome. On the other, FUT brings hundreds of millions of dollars to EA every year, and if more countries ban those kind of MTXs, they'll find other ways to sell people in-game content. And since FUT is its own thing that you can ignore and play 90% of the game without spending a dime otherwise, it's worrying that they might trying to skin people on other modes too. Let's hope that won't be the case.
This is actually a pleasant surprise from EA TBH, Square Enix literally stopped selling their mobile games in Belgium, like a child throwing a temper tantrum.
Well, let's see if they sell the next couple FIFA games there. I can see it escalating.
That's my fear as well. I've been quite easily able to ignore FUT for all this time because the milking remains solely there. I dread to think what would happen to the rest of the game if EA had to scrape/completely remove it
No way in hell EA will stop selling FIFA in any major european country
I wouldn't go full tinfoil hat, I'd be happy if the code could be examined before release, and I dunno maybe at random IF a request was put in. Anyone telling me shit like this is an industry secret can take a run and jump. It's RNG code, possibly with conditions.
Those possible conditions are what need to be checked though. Pity timers are garbage. Absolutely garbage. It's psychological manipulation and it's why betting has to be fixed odds.
If it's just Belgium, and just for one year until they relent on their law or make an exception? FUT makes a buttload of money. A one-time hit in one country may be worth it. The vocal playerbase may rally against Belgium rather than EA. You know how gamers are.
Loot boxes are bad and should be much more transparent and cheaper than now. I have spent an amount of money on gacha games in the past years, so I actually feel how bad these can be. Hope this is a beginning for a more fair use for these, or just to ban them completely in EU.