Loot boxes are classed as gambling in the UK

True, although I don't follow any other sports besides boxing and football and I would say that boxing isn't targeted at children the way football is, so didn't want to assume that all sports are as bad for it as football.

 

Good, took long enough.

 

"could"

again, this is nothing, until parliament does something with it

 

Normally parliament sends rule changes to the lords to be ok'ed. So I'd imagine that someone in parliament will take notice.

 

It sounds like the games will be 50 to 55 in price for the PS5 and Xbox Series X. So, yeah.... Who knows.

 

Yeah that's true. If we want 4/8k graphics then it is going to be reflected in the price. Might give smaller developers a chance of higher sales of their games though.

 

Prices haven't gone up because the gaming market is just growing. More people are buying games and the overhead for distribution is small, as almost everything is digital. Cost doesn't change very much if they sell 1k copies or 1M. If it was this bad as you say, companies wouldn't invest into games.

Lootboxes and microtransaction is just a result of games becoming big business. Shareholders don't care about the company, products or customers. They just expect to earn as much on their investment as humanly possible and if their profits shrink they invest into something else. That's why big CEOs cater to shareholders and not their customers and why we have all these crappy practices.

Sadly, I don't think that stricter regulation would necessarily bring big change. It's the customers who have to learn that these practices are bad and shouldn't be supported with their money. But looking at e.g. sales of FIFA, which is basically the same game every year with updated roster released for full price and full of microtransaction and lootboxes, I think there is still a long way for that to happen.

 

Serious question: Is one still able to buy games with lootboxes under the age of 18? Like Fifa20, Overwatch etc.?

 

Thanks for posting. I presume you're checking on those from inside either the Netherlands or Belgium for the sake of our conversation.

 

The cost of dual layered Blu-ray discs? will be a factor in the price increases. Steams prices are not too bad.

 

Well, I'm mostly talking about PC, where prices indeed didn't go up at all. For consoles a lot of games cost 80$ now and they also want you to pay for multiplayer. I'm sure that releasing physical copies is expensive (compared to digital), although I'd say that the price is still negligible compared to the cost of development and the most expensive part is the split with the physical shop that they have to make. That's why you have 100$ cheaper PS5 digital edition without any drive.

 

PEGI = Pan European Game Information and is located in Belgium.

 

Rememeber when piracy was to blame for game prices, then retail packaging, then the second hand market, now it's improved FPS and higher screen res. lol

 

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/300171?reveal_response=yes#response-threshold

Govt responded, looking for evidence to support a ban.

But again though, not banned yet or classed as gambling

 

You would think that given how the PSN store is hosted by Sony that the games would be fairly priced. But then you remember the Blu-ray discs. The download sizes on Steam are ok, but some are stupid in size. Mostly free to play ones that offer HD textures. That will double with 4K with these next gen games ported to PC. Last of Us 2 is over 200GB.

 

That sounds like the first reply of a spambot

 

i suspect that like hollywood gaming cos are cooking their books to hide profits.


they do it skrew contract hiring, they so big these places they do their own work and contracting and they overbill to vanish money off the books.


then they cry about they not making any money and prices need to increase and etc.


does not effect the bottom line or stocks so it does not trigger fraud but its fraud.


overall these companies post profits just like hollywood they fudging numbers while crying poor.

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-launches-call-for-evidence-on-video-game-loot-boxes

 

UK Government will find a way to pussy out, they serve big business and financial interests, they give zero shits about the health and well being of the plebeians.