Since 2018, Belgium and the Netherlands have considered that certain economic models of video games are similar to games of chance.
Indeed, while the classic model for acquiring games previously consisted of buying them and then disposing of them in their entirety, some publishers have seen a way of increasing their earnings and making them last over time via a lottery-like system.
Explanations:
It is common today that some games are free . Publishers rely on purchases that consumers will make during their games to obtain profits.
Indeed, to progress faster, some players will not hesitate to buy “objects” allowing for example to increase their capacities and thus to evolve more quickly.
Games of chance
There where Belgian law does not agree, it is on a method which consists of being able to buy what are called ” loot box “, which are boxes that contain random objects.
In short, the buyer does not know what he is going to get. And very often, to obtain a coveted object, it is necessary to acquire many boxes, the percentage of rare objects being very low.
This is the case, for example, of ” Counter-Strike Global Offensive “. This FPS-like game was originally derived from the game “Half-Life” which could only be obtained after purchasing it.
Today, CS:GO is free but Belgian players no longer have access to a whole series of elements allowing in particular improve skins ( Editor’s note: appearance of characters and objects ), which frustrates the Belgian community quite a bit.
Diablo:Immortal
And the ax fell 5 days ago for the next one Diablo Immortal highly anticipated, which is scheduled for release on June 2.
On the platform Reddit a developer has confirmed that the game cannot be downloaded from Belgium, nor from the Netherlands.
Basically, the message says this:
“Unfortunately, players from the Netherlands and Belgium will not be able to install Diablo: Immortal due to their countries restrictions on gambling. In-game loot boxes are against the laws of your country, so unless these laws are changed, the game will not be released in the Netherlands and Belgium, it would be illegal for you to download the game from another country like France.
If you decide to play, I can’t guarantee you won’t get banned for it. What I can say is that in similar situations in the past, we have not banned players who circumvented the system, but I cannot guarantee that you will not be banned.”
In conclusion
It is unlikely that the world of video game publishers will adapt to our two small countries, as the model is so profitable.
It is obvious that this law aims to protect the youngest, easily influenced and to reduce the risk of addiction. But in computing, everything can be circumvented, and quite easily in this case.
Hopefully our states find a way to accommodate everyone in the near future.
Waiting, Diablo fans Belgians will be deprived of this outing on June 2.