In a recent earnings call, Andrew Wilson, CEO of EA, had the following to say in regards to loot boxes:

We're working with all the industry associations globally and with regulators in various jurisdictions and territories, many of whom we've been working with for some time and have evaluated and established that programs like FIFA Ultimate Team are not gambling. And we don't believe that FIFA Ultimate Team – all loot boxes are gambling.

The news come after the recent decision in several countries to seek the ban of loot boxes which have been considered a form of gambling. EA even seemed to right the wrongs after announcing that it will remove the pay-to-win system from Battlefront II and introduce another system. While the debate about whether loot boxes should be considered as gambling is still ongoing, EA does not think so, with Wilson further giving the following argument:

Firstly, players always receive a specified number of items in each FUT pack. And secondly, we don't provide or authorize any way to cash out or sell items in virtual currency for real-world money. And there's no way we can make value assign to FUT items in game currency. And while we forbid the transfer of items of in-the-game currency outside, we also actively seek to eliminate that where it's going on in an illegal environment, and we work with regulators in various jurisdictions to achieve that.

And so net-net, we're going to continue to push forward. We're always thinking about our players. We're always thinking about how to deliver these types of experiences in a transparent, fun, fair, and balanced way for our players. And we'll communicate with regulators around the world on it.

So what do you think? Is EA right to hold its ground when it comes to loot boxes? Or is it on its way to win "Worst Company in America" once more?

SOURCE

 

[CallmeBerto]

Likewise, no one's putting a gun up to your head and forcing you to gamble, yet we have gambling laws for a reason. Loot boxes and other forms of microtransactions are made to be addictive, and prey on people who get caught in the game's addictive loop. That should at least warrant a clear and noticeable warning if it can't technically be classified as gambling. That's the ESRB's job. They're a consumer protection group, so they should be protecting consumers from a possibly addicting, predatory money hole.

I'm not a fan of gambling laws. Hell I'm not a fan of most laws. I rather not have some moral busybody tell me what I can't or can with my money or body. People know they are addictive and as long as there are warnings who cares? You knew the risk and now you can't afford rent...sucks to be you.

I think beyond a warning there should be a graph that shows you what is your percentages of getting item X or Y.

 

[HaloEliteLegend]

I'm not a fan of gambling laws. Hell I'm not a fan of most laws. I rather not have some moral busybody tell me what I can't or can with my money or body. People know they are addictive and as long as there are warnings who cares? You knew the risk and now you can't afford rent...sucks to be you.

I think beyond a warning there should be a graph that shows you what is your percentages of getting item X or Y.

And here's the thing -- you can totally still buy loot boxes. You can totally still gamble. All the while, there can totally be protection in place to prevent people from being unwittingly manipulated into compulsively throwing away cash. Gambling addiction has hard science backing up how addictive it can be, and the various things companies can do to manipulate gamblers into spending more money. It's not a completely arbitrary moral judgment at all. Those most susceptible to gambling or gambling-lite addiction benefit from protections.

I'm not a fan of being told I can't do something with my money or body either, but that does not mean abandoning protections for those most at risk. A good society should allow their people to do whatever they please, but a good society should also actively protect their people from unwitting harm. You can have both.

 

[MikaDubbz]

Wow, how brave of them. It's pretty pitiful when everyone out there, consumers, critics, parents, kids, freaking governments all agree that what you're doing is awful and no one wants it in your games, and yet you continue to put your fingers in your ears, go "la la la I can't hear you!" and continue on with your way as if the very notion that you're doing something wrong simply couldn't be, despite nobody else being on your side.

 

[Dubbicakes]

It breaks my heart that this is a high profit year for EA. I totes believe you should play games that make you happy, but I kinda wanna start making an exception. EA dumb. #EAdumb

 

[codezer0]

The last EA game I purchased with my own money was Mass Effect 2... on Steam. Because screw Origin, and screw their EULA that lets them ban you from your own games even from a basic forum moderation, or daring to ask for a refund on a known glitchy game.

 

[MaverickWellington]

How many times do we have to teach you this lesson, old man?

Why hello there, gamers! Want some lootboxes?

 

[DeletedMember411838]

Hmm ya, I don't see the big deal. Granted I don't play EA games really, I play alot of MMOs and ESports games, which all have loot boxes. They have never bothered me. I like buying them and taking a chance when I have some extra money.

The biggest thing I think people miss, is like wow. People boycott WOW, No lootboxes, 15 a month, plus game purchase (I play that as well). Alot of people have dropped from wow going to "F2P" greener pastures.

As someone who plays alot of F2P MMOs as well. Let me say this, I spent 5k during my 4 years in Archeage. I payed, so others could play for free. You Ban loot boxes, all those F2P games go away. You can't run dedicated large game servers with selling a few copies for 60 bucks.

So nix loot boxes, but don't complain when all games are 15 a month to play. Someone has to pay those bills, don't want whales to be able to? Then you can pay your share.

 

[WeedZ]

This is why the world needs piracy

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Hmm ya, I don't see the big deal. Granted I don't play EA games really, I play alot of MMOs and ESports games, which all have loot boxes. They have never bothered me. I like buying them and taking a chance when I have some extra money.

The biggest thing I think people miss, is like wow. People boycott WOW, No lootboxes, 15 a month, plus game purchase (I play that as well). Alot of people have dropped from wow going to "F2P" greener pastures.

As someone who plays alot of F2P MMOs as well. Let me say this, I spent 5k during my 4 years in Archeage. I payed, so others could play for free. You Ban loot boxes, all those F2P games go away. You can't run dedicated large game servers with selling a few copies for 60 bucks.

So nix loot boxes, but don't complain when all games are 15 a month to play. Someone has to pay those bills, don't want whales to be able to? Then you can pay your share.

We already pay server fees with PS+, xblive, and whatever Nintendo has.

 

[AutumnWolf]

I don't care if they are considered gambling or not, lootboxes still suck

 

[Cyan]

But loot boxes are no different than buying Pokemon card booster packs.

You are right, I never thought about it.
It's like these pack of stickers I bought when I was a kid, hoping to complete the book collection, and you never knew what you'll get, we had lot of duplicated card/stickers, and we needed to buy again.
I'm sure Panini(fr) company, now bought by Marvel entertainment, never declared it as gambling.
edit: I found this.

Though, panini allows people to buy missing element directly from their site to complete your collection.
I don't see EA doing that "hey, you can buy the weapon you want instead of randomly opening gifts you bought to get it".
I think they should do something like that. Players who like gifts and surprise can buy loot boxes, people who want a specific item can buy it directly from a shop (more expansive than a loot box, if they want).

 

[Ysle29]

You are right, I never thought about it.
It's like these pack of stickers I bought when I was a kid, hoping to complete the book collection, and you never knew what you'll get, we had lot of duplicated card/stickers, and we needed to buy again.
I'm sure Panini(fr) company, now bought by Marvel entertainment, never declared it as gambling.

Panini stickers/Pokémon cards are very different from loot boxes. Unlike loot boxes you buy something physical that, unlike loot boxes, doesn't expire and just dissappear.

Take FIFA Ultimate Team for example, you can buy player packs (loot boxes) for either real life money or in-game currency which is extremely grindy to get. After one year or less there will be a new FIFA version, essentialy making your players in the previous version worthless. Even if you'd decide to continue playing the old FIFA version, you'd still lose your players after a few years when the servers are shut down with no compensation whatsoever.

You can still trade and play with Pokémon cards for the rest of your life if you want to. You can even, again unlike with loot boxes, sell your card collection for real money when you're done with it.

 

[Cyan]

ah, sorry, I didn't know it expired/disappeared. I thought you bought gifts that you open right away to find what's inside.
I never played Battle front, I just assumed it was the same concept.

As for being physical and can be sold to make money, I don't think it's relevant to the gambling part.
if you go to casino, you gamble, and either get nothing to make money from, or get a gain which you do what you want with it.
You are not forced to resell pokémon cards to get your value back, it's the action of "playing and being addicted to discover what you won" that gambling law is trying to protect, no ? it doesn't take in account that you can resell and make money (millions if you win loto) but the fact that you can lose a lot if you get addicted.

 

[Ysle29]

True, the fact that Pokémon cards are physical is probably not relevant to the gambling part. However, it still shows how game companies exploit the human mind to buy dissapearing, worthless virtual items.

Pokémon cards make abuse of the same ways to exploit the mind, but they at least give you something valuable and physical in return. In that way I think trading cards are less malicious than loot boxes.

Also, unlike many loot boxes, you can buy the missing Pokémon cards you want for just a few cents. If you want a Ronaldo or Messi card in FIFA you'll probably have to spend thousands of euros or dollars.

 

[DarkKaine]

EA isn't relying on hardcore or even core gamers to make their money off lootboxes. They're relying on their casual players who are willing to drop a few bucks here and there on a loot box every week or so.

Unfortunately that's not the way this works.
These companies prey on 3 particular groups of individuals:

1) People that are rich and don't give a fuck.
2) Mentally ill/socially awkward people in MMOs that are forced to buy stuff in order to be able to keep up with their (usually) virtual friends.
3) Timmy using dad's creditcard.

All the while making sure that said items you get are either unavailable or simply not worth it to grind for to get them without paying.
There are tons of psychological tricks embedded into these games that make sure that you'll always feel like you're missing out.

The 1% of the playerbase is ruining it for us all, and we can't even blame them.
As long as our government isn't doing anything about this and not protecting the people that don't have the brain capacity to understand that these are scummy business practices nothing will ever change.

 

[pustal]

I don't think this will backfire on them at all. May be bad PR, but if they weren't profiting massively from jt, they wouldn't be insisting upon it. And EA doesn't care about PR, it's been like that for years, or over a decade now.

 

[Deleted User]

Bye bye ea... you and your stupid lootboxes. Next time create a mmorpg. . Those players seem to love pay2win

 

[AdamFX990]

Everyone at EA just seems to think about the next quarter and is completely blind to the longevity of the company. But I'm happy to sit by and casually observe the chaos unfold. I haven't bought an EA game since Battlefront 3 and doubt I ever will again.

 

[yoyoyo69]

"Firstly, players always receive a specified number of items in each FUT pack. And secondly, we don't provide or authorize any way to cash out or sell items in virtual currency for real-world money. And there's no way we can make value assign to FUT items in game currency. And while we forbid the transfer of items of in-the-game currency outside, we also actively seek to eliminate that where it's going on in an illegal environment, and we work with regulators in various jurisdictions to achieve that."

They're right, lootboxes aren't gambling, you get nothing, just random pixels. They should be COMPLETELY outlawed

 

[ScienceBETCH]

Ea is trying too hard to be hated
I believe in you ea, you can get another worst company award
I cant wait for the time when we will have to buy or rent the main menu dlc to actually play the game

 

[McWhiters9511]

O O F