Last November, Democrat representative for the state of Hawaii Chris Lee spoke up about loot boxes in video games, in which he described loot boxes like those in EA’s Star Wars Battlefront 2 as being an “online casino” designed to lure kids into spending more money than they should in addition to buying the game.Now it looks like Lee is finally doing something about it, and has proposed multiple bills that are meant to tackle the problem with loot boxes. One of those bills will prohibit the sale of games to anyone below the age of 21 in which it contains randomised loot boxes that require payment. Games would also be required to be labeled to show that they include microtransactions as well as showing the odds of the rewards, so that players are aware of their chances instead of spending blindly and hoping that they’ll win something.
Speaking to the Hawaii Tribune Herald, Lee was quoted as telling the publication, “I grew up playing games my whole life. I’ve watched firsthand the evolution of the industry from one that seeks to create new things to one that’s begun to exploit people, especially children, to maximize profit.”
Of course whether or not these bills will be passed remains to be seen, plus how they will be enforced will also be a different story. We also expect that the bill will probably face a lot of opposition from publishers and developers, some of whom have made a ton of money from in-game transactions.
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