lockboxes
Star Trek Online’s newest promotional ship in a lockbox angers fans for breaking the developers’ own rules
There's always been some consternation between players of Star Trek Online and the Perfect World Entertainment marketing philosophy of adding new ships via lockboxes. Generally,...
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...
New UK parliament report recommends regulation of lockboxes as gambling
Remember last month when UK lawmakers started making fresh noise about classifying lockboxes/lootboxes as gambling to protect children following multiple reports and surveys on...
Class action lawsuit alleges Apple promotes gambling via lootboxes through its storefront
Legal moves are being made against the practice of lootbox monetization against one of the largest targets possible. A class action complaint filed with...
English lawmakers may classify lockboxes as straight-up gambling
Video game studios that feature lockboxes in their titles are sitting very uncomfortably this week as England decides whether or not to make their...
TERA added lockbox transparency and skill balance changes with this week’s patch
The newest patch for TERA is not really about content. Obviously, you can take a look at the full patch notes and find some...
PEGI adds lockbox warnings to rating labels
That sure didn't take long. Earlier this week, we found out that the ESRB would be adding a specific content warning to games in...
Phantasy Star Online 2 introduces its ‘scratch tickets’ lockboxes as the open beta kicks off
The open beta for Phantasy Star Online 2 has kicked off today on the Xbox One, with Windows 10 still listed as "coming soon."...
UK NHS director calls out lootboxes as ‘under the radar’ gambling
As much as the developers who make lockboxes would probably like for the random packs of items to start slipping back under the radar,...
Chronicles of Elyria starts selling $75 Longest Night advent calendars
There has to be a measure of masochistic joy in stocking up account items that you can't use (yet) for a game that is...
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is getting rid of locked lockboxes altogether
The process of getting crates in PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is not necessarily all that rewarding. You pay your hard-earned BP to get a crate, and it...
LOTRO’s Minas Morgul lockboxes are raising community concerns
Ever since SSG increased its use and contents with the Mordor expansion, LOTRO's lockboxes have been a sore point among players who have heavily...
UK’s children’s commissioner calls for tighter legislation on lootboxes
A report from UK children's commissioner Anne Longfield is calling for stricter laws on lootboxes and to amend current gambling laws to include lootboxes,...
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare eschews lockbox monetization for a battle pass
Arguably one of the bigger online multiplayer shooters coming down the pike is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, just by mere dint of its...
Predictably, the ESA rebuffs UK call to ban lockboxes, citing nebulous transparent lockbox plan
Yesterday, we covered the UK government’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee panel report on addictive technologies: Readers will recall that the lengthy...
UK parliament committee calls for ban on selling lockboxes to kids, deems games industry ‘wilfully obtuse’
As gamers will recall, the UK government's Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee panel has been investigating addictive technologies for the better part...
Path of Exile cancels new lockboxes-within-lockboxes after ‘intensely negative’ feedback
So let's play a little round of bad news, good news with Path of Exile. Yesterday, with the Blight expansion not even a week...
EA’s infamous ‘sense of pride and accomplishment’ post now holds a Guinness record – for Reddit downvotes
By now, we're all familiar with the 2017 comment by EA about how lootboxes provide "a sense of pride and accomplishment." The remark was...
Gaming psychologist Jamie Madigan explains what ‘surprise mechanics’ actually are
We're all familiar with the "surprise mechanics" incident, the absurdist argument in defense of lootboxes from EA's VP of legal and government affairs Kerry...
Leaderboard: Does the ESA’s new transparent lockbox policy go far enough?
Last week, just as the FTC's video games monetization abuse investigation got underway, the ESA announced that many of the major and minor games...
