As Belgium begins to crack down on games that use micro-transactions and in-game purchases, developers have been forced to change their games for the region due to their new laws. Meanwhile, certain other companies aren't as willing to make such accommodations, resulting in today's official statement made by Nintendo's Belgian branch. Mobile titles Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp and Fire Emblem Heroes will no longer be available for those in Belgium, "due to an unclear situation regarding certain in-game revenue models". On August 27, 2019, service for both games will end, and they will be removed from download. Not only will this affect the two existing titles, but any and all future Nintendo mobile games that use a "gacha" style system will avoid releasing in the country from here on out.

Due to the current unclear situation in Belgium regarding certain in-game revenue models, we have decided to end the service for Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp and Fire Emblem Heroes in Belgium. It will therefore no longer be possible to play and download the games from Tuesday 27 August 2019.

Players who still have Orbs and / or Leaf Tickets in their account can continue to use them until the service ends.

In addition, future Nintendo games with similar earnings models will no longer be released in Belgium.

We would like to thank all players in Belgium for playing Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp and Fire Emblem Heroes.

Source

 

[julianuf]

I'm one of the few that never ever paid for a single micro transaction in my life. Not even a single one and i never will. If everyone would have done that to begin with we wouldn't have this mess with micro transaction filled games. I'm atleast not part of the problem but everyone else is

Good for you. (Not being sarcastic or anything.)

The problem with these types of game designs is that they prey on and abuse certain aspects of human psychology.

It IS gambling. Except that it's sugar coated to not look like it. Everything these companies do is try to abuse people's tendencies.

You aren't susceptible to these kinds of tactics, that's great, I'm happy for you, but that's not the case for everyone.

Good on Belgium, hopefully more counties follow suit. And of course, shame on Nintendo and all other companies creating these predatory games.

 

[RPG_FAN128]

I've never been a fan of micro transactions. Let me buy the entire game, and then let me access everything. DLC is *kind of* different but considering I have basically never bought any DLC it is not really in the same category for my universe.

 

[Izual Urashima]

Belgian here. And honestly, I saw it coming.

While Nintendo has a small presence on the mobile market by themselves, they still are a family-friendly company, so they have to cater to such decisions. That being said, I expect them to pull a Square Enix, with their "ban" only being a removal of Google Play access for players who didn't got the game before the ban.

Still, good move Ninty. May other companies follow suit.

 

[Skelletonike]

Too many people saying the games are bad or crap just because they have in app purchases or gacha systems....
Also, people complaining about having to be always online... Most people are always online nowadays, people fear the always online in these games, yet have no problems being always online for other stuff.

 

[KingVamp]

I think US could go either way with this. I think so far, only one real attempt is going towards banning them for kids. It might just fall under the radar, since we have so much other stuff to deal with.

 

[|<roni&g]

Bravo Belgium. We need to get micro transactions banned worldwide, they’ve spoilt mobile games and infected our console games which has been so disappointing to see

 

[Pipistrele]

Too many people saying the games are bad or crap just because they have in app purchases or gacha systems....
Also, people complaining about having to be always online... Most people are always online nowadays, people fear the always online in these games, yet have no problems being always online for other stuff.

considering the site we're on, I think people are mostly afraid of losing easy ways to pirate stuff

 

[raxadian]

Nintendo mobile games only exist to temp you into buying their real games so is no big loss for them.

 

[Deleted_413010]

So in the efforts of "protecting" their citizens, they now get to get the lesser experience of not being able to play those games, even if they want to.

Oh come on...this is the first country to actually ban in-app purchases. They are killing the greedy companies. I will possibly be moving there.

 

[Hells Malice]

Bye Felicia. Belgium is by far the dumbest country for stuff like this. They'll be back in the stone ages before anyone pretty soon. Tons and tons of games, sites and media pull the fuck away from Belgium because they have a LOTR trilogy sized book of arbitrary laws.

I bet VPN sales are insane over there till they get outlawed too.

It's about time gamers stop being whiny and entitled babies, and realize there's basically nothing wrong with microtransactions. There are some bad eggs, but they're obvious and easy to avoid. Hell most are dead games. Governments need to stop making retarded laws to protect the 0.01% with a gambling problem. Put the effort into getting them help because there's PLENTY of other ways to gamble. For most games it's just a great way to exploit whales to fund a game for everyone to play for free.

 

[ThoD]

Nintendo always makes pretty fair F2P games honestly, they almost always add a "spending limit" (usually like 20-30€) and once you reach that you can't buy any more stuff with real money but in return you get all sorts of bonuses as if the game isn't F2P anymore so they aren't ripping you off and that's on top of them being free instead of 60€ AND having microtransactions... And let's not forget that MOST of Nintendo's games that are F2P are perfectly playable and enjoyed without paying at all if you simply wait a little (not crazy long wait times like some other shitty F2P games).

 

[kumikochan]

Bye Felicia. Belgium is by far the dumbest country for stuff like this. They'll be back in the stone ages before anyone pretty soon. Tons and tons of games, sites and media pull the fuck away from Belgium because they have a LOTR trilogy sized book of arbitrary laws.

I bet VPN sales are insane over there till they get outlawed too.

It's about time gamers stop being whiny and entitled babies, and realize there's basically nothing wrong with microtransactions. There are some bad eggs, but they're obvious and easy to avoid. Hell most are dead games. Governments need to stop making retarded laws to protect the 0.01% with a gambling problem. Put the effort into getting them help because there's PLENTY of other ways to gamble. For most games it's just a great way to exploit whales to fund a game for everyone to play for free.

Bye Felicia. Belgium is by far the dumbest country for stuff like this. They'll be back in the stone ages before anyone pretty soon. Tons and tons of games, sites and media pull the fuck away from Belgium because they have a LOTR trilogy sized book of arbitrary laws.

I bet VPN sales are insane over there till they get outlawed too.

It's about time gamers stop being whiny and entitled babies, and realize there's basically nothing wrong with microtransactions. There are some bad eggs, but they're obvious and easy to avoid. Hell most are dead games. Governments need to stop making retarded laws to protect the 0.01% with a gambling problem. Put the effort into getting them help because there's PLENTY of other ways to gamble. For most games it's just a great way to exploit whales to fund a game for everyone to play for free.

Are you sure you're not talking about Canada where you can get a fine for misgendering someone ? You're a funny guy. And you're the reason why gaming companies went to shit seeing you're nagging about people complaining about micro transactions and basically saying it's a good thing.

 

[Paolosworld]

RESPECT TO BELGIUM

it’s about time someone did something against micro transactions

 

[osaka35]

if they changed the "could be anything!" model to "it's this rarity and something you don't have!", would that still be considered against this particular law?

 

[the_randomizer]

Let me know when mobile games that have a complete experience (as in, a full game that's actually complete and doesn't require microtransactions). To me, DLC and transactions are just half-assed reasons to not complete a game upon launch.

 

[kumikochan]

To be fair, people are getting the wrong idea tho here. Belgium isn't banning micro transactions but lootboxes but some companies don't get the translation properly to their language and have a different understanding of what the law actually means. But micro transactions aren't banned but micro transactions to get you to buy lootboxes are like in game currency. Apex legends perfectly understands what the law in Belgium is and have disabled the option to buy lootboxes with in game currency wich makes it perfectly legal then. Nintendo doesn't get the law and doesn't understand it so they decide to completely pull the game and i do think companies perfectly understand what the law means but that they're doing this out of spite hoping gamers will rise up against the goverment and that's the sole reason they're acting this way.

 

[Windaga]

Yeah I don't know about all this. Fire Emblem Heroes is a fun game, and while you could just purchase orbs, you earn plenty through daily logins and actually completing missions. I haven't hit a point yet where I've felt like I needed to pay to enjoy the game, and I've been playing since launch.

I feel that this is the case for a lot of "good" gacha/microtransaction games. I also play SMT DX2 and it's very much the same; sure, you could speed the process up by paying, but I play mobile games in passing. I haven't dumped a cent into either game and I've a great deal of fantastic units.

I get the large amounts of distaste because of the fear of what it can become, but, for as far as Nintendo goes, I haven't seen an issue with any of their titles. I'm inclined to agree with @Hells Malice - there are bad eggs out there, for sure. But people - gamers included- are growing a bit too entitled for my personal taste. We all have opinions, and bless you for yours, but toxic consumer habits should be the responsibility of the individual, not the industry. If it's a poor game filled with terrible microtransactions, it likely won't last.

 

[Justinde75]

As somebody who plays gacha games alot I think this is a pretty bad move of them. Basically taking away the chance of people playing free2play and just taking the game down at all sucks. I personally have been addicted to a certain gacha game and spent ALOT of time and money on it. Luckily I was able to stop playing the game and move on to other games which don't need money that much. Fire Emblem is a pretty generous game and you dont need to spend on every single banner available. I hope most players who enjoy it just get the apk and continue playing the game if they enjoy it, while still being careful about spending habits

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doesn't work if the games require online to be active/connect to a server to play

They are probably just going to take it down from the store and you'll be able to download an apk on android. Thats how I play stuff like Fate GO which is not out in Germany for example or Japanese versions of games like Dragon Ball Dokkan Battle. Fire Emblem has a global server for all the regions so it will still be possible to play in belgium

 

[Proust]

Happy to see this happening. In all seriousness fire emblem Heroes is just a gambling game... but just differently packaged and yes people do get addicted to it. Why would there exist severe regulations for gambling games like a lottery and not for such games? Well done Belgium!

 

[Deleted User]

You know Japan, Korea and China will never go through with this since the game company there made fortune from those kind of game and have very big influence with government. So yeah, good for Belgium at least.

They stopped putting slot machines in Pokemon because of Europe. If these regulations gain traction in other countries I can see these kinds of games becoming a niche Asia exclusive thing like many pre smartphone mobile spinoffs were.

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Nintendo mobile games only exist to temp you into buying their real games so is no big loss for them.

And lock you out of Switch game content like Meltan.