lockbox
Just when you thought lockbox gambling couldn’t get any grosser
You might think, given the public outcry against digital video game lockboxes over the last year and the slow-moving but serious oversight crackdown currently...
UK parliament committee will investigate addictive tech, lootboxes, and harmful gamification
Given that UK researchers this year found a "relationship between problem gambling and the use of loot boxes" as well as determined that problem...
Lord of the Rings Online cultivates better lootboxes for impatient Elves
We all know that if there's an important bug in an MMO, developers will get around to fixing it... sooner or later. But if...
MMO Business Roundup: Chinese vs Western gamers, devs against Brexit, and lockboxes as gambling in Australia
Welcome back to another quick trip through some of this week's gaming business tidbits.
Profiling Chinese gamers
Quantic Foundry, the Nick Yee research firm that studies...
The FTC commits to investigating video game lootboxes following US Senate subcommittee hearing
Readers following the long-running lootbox/lockbox debate will recall that back in February of this year, New Hampshire Senator Maggie Hassan, who sits on the...
Nearly a third of the kids surveyed in the UK Gambling Commission’s study admitted to buying lockboxes
The UK Gambling Commission's Young People & Gambling 2018 report was released this month with disturbing statistics for the role gambling is apparently playing...
Torchlight Frontiers’ free-to-play model rejects pay-to-win and gambling schemes
Given that Torchlight Frontiers is being published under Perfect World Entertainment, you're probably not going to be shocked to hear that the MMO will...
MMO Business Roundup: Japanese lockboxes, POGO and Square Enix financials, and Prima’s end
"The Good Times Are Over for Japan’s Loot-Box-Style Gaming Bonanza" - that's the brutal headline plonked onto this week's Bloomberg report on Japanese lockboxes....
MMO Business Roundup: FIFA lockboxes, anti-swatting policy, Fortnite on SNL, Free Guy, UO postmortem
Whenever our newsroom gets overloaded with weird industry-related articles that nobody feels like writing, another edition of the MMO Business Roundup gets its wings!
FIFA...
Ireland signed declaration of concern but won’t regulate lockboxes as gambling
Remember two weeks ago when a bunch of representatives from the Europe and US cosigned a declaration noting concerns over skin-betting and lockboxes at...
Guild Wars 2: Belgian players report gem-buying block, plus more on the bubble tea bans
If you're a Belgian gamer, you should probably take a peek at your Guild Wars 2 account. Multiple Redditors and forumgoers from the country...
International regulators co-sign declaration to investigate lockboxes and skin gambling
If you thought Belgium and The Netherlands were going to keep on standing alone in the fight against lootboxes, you were very much mistaken,...
UK researchers identify link between lootboxes and problem gambling
Are lockboxes just another form of gambling? That depends on which government entity, scientist, lawyer, or doctor you ask. But maybe the question we...
Belgium begins criminal investigation into EA’s noncompliance with gambling laws as lockboxes remain in FIFA
Activision-Blizzard and Valve may have cooperated with European nations' lockbox demands, but apparently EA won't be playing ball.
You'll recall that at the end of...
PAX West 2018: Anthem shuns content paywalls, lockboxes while embracing ‘reactive storytelling’
More information from BioWare's Anthem presentation at PAX West this weekend has continued to roll out, bolstering the gorgeous trailer and potentially worrisome story-related...
Blizzard is disabling Overwatch and HOTS lockbox purchases for Belgian players
Earlier this year, Belgium took up the anti-lootbox cause, becoming one of the first countries to investigate lockboxes in online games and ultimately threatening...
Star Wars Galaxies fans are working on an emulator for the game’s TCG
I haven't been making any secret of how much fun I'm having in the Star Wars Galaxies Legends emulator (and thanks so much to...
Dota 2 apes Path of Exile with transparent lockboxes for Dutch players
Remember when the Dutch gaming authorities effectively threatened to prosecute prosecute companies like Valve for vending and trading lockboxes the government agencies considered a...
Three quarters of European gamers don’t even understand what the heck lootboxes are
A new report on GIbiz suggests that most gamers are pretty darn clueless about lootboxes, which probably won't surprise anyone reading here. Researchers for the...
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...
