The German government has passed a law that will see games featuring loot boxes restricted to adults if the law is approved by the Federal Council as is likely to happen this Spring. The law is intended to prevent children from accessing games featuring loot boxes and spending real money on them.
How will the new German law affect games with loot boxes?
This news comes to us from Der Spiegel (note: we’re using machine translation for the article). The news platform says the Bundestag approved a reform of the Youth Protection Act which will bring in stricter age ratings for games in Germany. This means that games such as EA’s FIFA 21, which prominently features loot box mechanics as part of its Ultimate Team game mode, would have sales restricted to those of 18 or over. Naturally, this will come as a massive blow for EA; a large proportion of FIFA‘s audience is below the age of 18,…
