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Information technology has been almost a year since the insulting, expensive microtransactions in Star Wars: Battlefront 2 started a backlash against loot crates in games. Electronic Arts was behind the Star Wars loot crates, then it may non come up as a surprise that it has been hesitant to remove loot crates from games in Belgium, which decided before this year that the randomized loot crate mechanics in games from EA and other publishers constituted illegal gambling. Now, that conclusion may be headed for court.

The Belgian gaming commission was quick to decry the loot crate mechanisms highlighted by the Battlefront 2 controversy. In April of this year, the land decided that loot boxes that return random rewards in commutation for money count as gambling, and are therefore illegal in Belgium. The Netherlands followed shortly thereafter. Game publishers like Blizzard and 2K pulled the offending microtransactions from their games in the land, but EA seems adamant to test the ban.

The firestorm of criticism over loot crates in Battlefront 2 led EA to remove them from the game, merely the publisher's FIFA titles nevertheless employ boodle crates. The boodle crates are live everywhere, even in Kingdom of belgium and the netherlands. In Kingdom of belgium, the gaming commission has reportedly referred the EA matter to the country'southward public prosecutor's office, which is investigating if EA has broken the law by leaving loot boxes in FIFA.

EA's FIFA games sell players card packs, and those packs contain players of various skill levels. EA recently decided to disembalm the odds of getting the best cards in these packs, and it uses this as part of its argument for keeping boodle box mechanics. EA CFO Andrew Wilson also asserted earlier this year that loot boxes aren't gambling considering it doesn't offer players any way to sell or cash out their cards for real coin. It sure does experience like gambling, though, with some players spending thousands of dollars in pursuit of the ultimate team.

A legal case in Belgium may be exactly what EA wants. If the public prosecutor decides to bring a case, EA will have the chance to become before a approximate and fence that loot boxes are not gambling. A favorable ruling could assistance EA justify the utilise of microtransactions in future games.

While Belgium is leading the way in fighting loot crates, some other countries take gone in the contrary direction. The US and New Zealand decided boodle crates don't count every bit gambling, simply some U.s.a. states take started investigations. No legislation has come of it, though.

Now read: Disney May Have Pushed EA to Pull Battlefront 2 Pay-to-Win Loot Organisation Concluding Week, Well-nigh Gamers Hate Ownership Loot Boxes, And then Why Are Games Using Them?, and EA Remains Committed to Microtransactions, and That'south Partially Our Error