Star Wars: Battlefront II may be seeing some negative repercussions of its unanimously rejected loot crate systems in the form of dropping sales numbers. But Electronic Arts, and potentially the video games industry in general, may have also brought legislative scrutiny upon itself as well. Thanks to the widespread coverage of the loot box problem, multiple, international governmental bodies are all reacting with investigations and other plans to act against what is being framed as a gambling matter.
Leading up to now, multiple stories have broken about international, governmental bodies investigating loot box-style purchases in mass market video games. It has come to light that organizations meant to regulate or investigate gambling in countries like Australia and Belgium, are actively investigating these systems, after being alerted to the discussion via contact from gamers, larger news outlets covering it and of course the brand power of Star Wars .
Now, the first example of United States involvement has come to light as well. The State of Hawaii, including representatives Chris Lee and Sean Quinlan have publicly announced intent to take action against what they have labeled as “predatory” behavior, comparing the practice to the infamous Joe Camel and highlighting worry about children being taken advantage of by these systems.
Source: Chris Lee via YouTube