laws
Nintendo is suing an influencer who streamed multiple unreleased games and taunted the company
It is not exactly a controversial statement to say that Nintendo loves suing people, with everyone from fans who made art Nintendo didn't like...
Apple was denied its request to postpone third-party payment options
Welcome to the continued aftermath of the Epic/Apple lawsuit. When we last left off, Apple was trying to postpone its acceptance of third-party payment...
California’s DFEH files an objection to the settlement between Activision-Blizzard and the EEOC
It probably seemed like Activision-Blizzard had actually finally dodged a bullet in its ongoing lawsuit drama when it reached a settlement with the EEOC...
Australian MP plans to introduce a bill banning lockbox sales to minors
You may remember back last year that there was some noise made in Australia about banning the sale of video game lootboxes to people...
Chinese police team up with Tencent to take down a video game cheating ring
It was an illegal organization being taken down by the Chinese police force in a concentrated operation. It involved $76 million being made, with...
EU study recommends taking on lockboxes as a consumer issue rather than a gambling issue
As much as the companies using them to make bank might want them to, the discussions around lockboxes are not going away. And a...
South Korea’s anti-boosting law has gone into effect
Let's say your friend Trab is a terrible player, but you want him to be playing in a slightly higher bracket in Overwatch, so...
ZeniMax Media is hit with a trademark dispute over a filing for ‘Redfall’
What is "Redfall?" We don't know just yet, beyond the fact that it's a trademark filed by ZeniMax Media (the parent company of Bethesda...
Tencent introduces strict rules for streamers playing its games
Good news for Chinese streamers, as gaming giant Tencent has introduced a new set of rules about what streamers can and cannot do while...
Pennsylvania legislators introduce video game ‘sin tax’ bill
Pennsylvania lawmakers have introduced a bill that seeks to institute a tax on mature-rated video games sold in the state. House Bill 109 would...
South Korea now has a law criminalizing the act of boosting in online games
Let's say you really care about your competitive rank in a video game, but you don't have the time to actually practice and get...
China’s delays on video game licenses may last another 4-6 months
It's been a bit of a rough go for games in China recently; Monster Hunter World was the first massively popular game we watched...
France’s gambling authority condemns but does not ban lockboxes
The international community is becoming aware of the problems of lootboxes, and that means that laws are being formed in response to the business...
Valve turns off lootboxes in the Netherlands for DOTA 2 and CounterStrike: Global Offensive
If you were in any way hoping that the Dutch Gaming Authority's ruling about lockboxes would lead to a worldwide shift, it seems that's...
Trademarks, copyrights, and patents: What they mean for you and for video games
Has the pace of news moved so quickly that we've already forgotten about Brendan "PlayerUnknown" Greene's statement that video games lack any IP copyright...
Mother of Fortnite cheater claims that her 14-year-old son is being used as a scapegoat
Last month, Fortnite developer Epic sued two alleged associates of a cheating software site as part of the studio's hard-line approach to cheaters. Makes...
The US government is considering DMCA exceptions for archived online games after all
Back in 2015, an exception was made to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to allow for archival of aging video games that were otherwise...
No, exploitative gacha mechanics are not a good idea for western devs
We've been talking about exploitative gacha games and related business models on Massively OP for a long time, most recently and notably in depth earlier...
The jury is out on whether or not DOTA 2 actually belongs to Valve
It's not very interesting to see a big company take knockoff companies to court to argue that the knockoff companies are violating intellectual property....
Pokémon Go needs park permits in Milwaukee County to use park locations
The Milwaukee County Parks Department had a bit of a problem with Pokémon Go last year. It turns out that when you place various...
