Ahead of the Ministry's plans: videogames sold in Spain are going to show explictly if they include loot boxes or micropayments

From the "Ministerio of Consumo", the Government of Spain clearly warned that it considered loot boxes and micro-payment systems integrated in video games a key field to prevent gambling in minors. The Minister of Consumer Affairs, Alberto Garzón, announced at a press conference that his Ministry is already working on a project to regulate the loot boxes of video games.

But ahead of said regulation, the company responsible for rating the content of video games -'Entertainment Software Rating Board'- has announced that from now on, video games that are put on sale in Spain will include a new and explicit notice on the boxes where the buyer will be warned that the game he is purchasing has loot boxes, or 'loot boxes'.

Loot boxes and similar myropayment systems have become a key source of funding for the industry and have resulted in the vast majority of games adopting this monetization system in some form, offering in-game services or resources that are random and obtained either with real money or with in-game money; becoming one of the clearest exponents of how the sector carries out dishonest practices and that according to many experts promote compulsive gambling.

From now on, the ESRB will include a new label indicating that the game will include this type of loot boxes or, failing that, in-game purchases that provide the player with random rewards. This will be an indication that the content that the player can obtain may be restricted to real payments: "This new interactive in-game purchase item will be assigned to any game that contains in-game offers to buy digital products or currencies with currency of the real world. "