Fire Emblem Heroes & Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp will cease to exist in Belgium (microtransaction laws issue)

justiceiro · May 21, 2019

It's kinda cool the Nintendo executives now have a good excuse to not persue this model anymore, to much dismay of investors, of course.

But there are a lot of cool f2p games that will suffer because of that when the ones complaining are ones paying 60 dollars for their games. Had AAA companies made their games free to play before introducing loot boxes, nobody would say a peep against it.

The Adder · May 21, 2019

Tempy said:
It's a shame Nintendo can't be arsed to come up with something better than gacha shenanigans.

Did you buy Mario Run?

Deleted member 5535 · May 21, 2019

justiceiro said:
It's kinda cool the Nintendo executives now have a good excuse to not persue this model anymore, to much dismay of investors, of course.

But there are a lot of cool f2p games that will suffer because of that when the ones complaining are ones paying 60 dollars for their games. Had AAA companies made their games free to play before introducing loot boxes, nobody would say a peep against it.

Change that for what? lol No japanese company will do that as:

Europe is one of the weakest markets for gacha
Japan is the major market and consumers don't mind this aspect. The gacha problem happened in 2012 with a worse version and was resolved there.

Even if the entire world got a ban, Japan alone would be sufficient due to how major it is compared to other countries. And Asia in general as well.

Linde · May 21, 2019

Stupid. Hope Belgium players can find a way to continue playing

Busaiku · May 21, 2019

justiceiro said:
It's kinda cool the Nintendo executives now have a good excuse to not persue this model anymore, to much dismay of investors, of course.

But there are a lot of cool f2p games that will suffer because of that when the ones complaining are ones paying 60 dollars for their games. Had AAA companies made their games free to play before introducing loot boxes, nobody would say a peep against it.

All the countries in Europe and every country besides the US (not North America, just the US) and Japan accounted for less than 13% of Fire Emblem Heroes's revenue.
That's 57 countries countries, again, not including Japan and the US.
It made over $500 million.

Super Mario Run made $68 million.

Investors would eviscerate Nintendo if they abandoned this model to appease Europeans.
Or any country besides Japan (the US accounted for 31%).

Asuka3+1 · May 21, 2019

Tempy said:
The sooner we get rid of this predatory shit in games, the better.

It's a shame Nintendo can't be arsed to come up with something better than gacha shenanigans.

yeah. is not like they tried with mario run and the market spoke that they dont like full price over dripping

LordKano said:
No, the issue is addiction.

gambling addiction is real, mobile gatcha is not even close to real world gambling for several reasons that makes it being regulated as such comically evil

Nitpicker_Red · May 21, 2019

Asuka3+1 said:
gambling addiction is real, mobile gatcha is not even close to real world gambling for several reasons that makes it being regulated as such comically evil

It is not being regulated, which is the problem, there is currently no legislation for paid lootboxes in Belgium.
If it was being regulated like other "Game of Chance", there would be a permit of sort you could get.

The law just isn't ready. And I don't think Belgian regulators are in a hurry to build context for it, they prefer to wait until the industry self-regulates (as this quote shows):

The Gaming Commission has reached the conclusion that paying loot boxes are games of chance. If these are operated further, a criminal approach is indicated. Since the phenomenon goes farther than the 4 games analysed, the Gaming Commission is making a number of recommendations for both those responsible for the policy, the game manufacturers, the game platforms and the licensors such as FIFA.

Peter Naessens, Director at the Gaming Commission: "Paying loot boxes are no innocent component of video games which present themselves as a game of skill. Players are tempted and misled by them and none of the protective measures for games of chance are applied. Now that it has become clear that children and vulnerable persons in particular are being exposed to this without any protection, the game producers, and also the parties involved, are called upon to put a stop to this practice."

"We are seeing this is problem with our law and paid lootboxes, but we only have budget to look at 4 games. We'd like you to follow those guidelines. Please fix, game industry."

Tempy · May 21, 2019

Asuka3+1 said:
gambling addiction is real, mobile gatcha is not even close to real world gambling for several reasons that makes it being regulated as such comically evil

Regulating gacha is comically evil? Come again? Actually, don't bother.

Sandfox · May 21, 2019

It doesn't really make sense to keep the games available without gacha for multiple reasons.

The mobile market doesn't want games you pay for upfront with no gacha so I don't understand bringing that up.

These games probably make so much money in Asia alone that it won't affect anything.

Gacha Santa Alter · May 21, 2019

Ironic FEH would be hit by this. I never saw the game as predatory. It showers you with so much premium currency and free quests to earn more I never felt the need to spend. Plus the gameplay mechanics are built in a way that it's arguably easier to build lower rarity characters to ridiculous levels of broken-ness than it is to make a high rarity character really strong.

Aexact · May 21, 2019

Reading this thread as a former gacha player, I feel embarrassed for my former self that argued the gacha system is totally fine because you don't need to spend money. I was in deep, all I really wanted was to keep playing my game. Like, at least being subject to the same rules as gambling seems fair because that's what gacha is.

Asuka3+1 · May 21, 2019

Aexact said:
Reading this thread as a former gacha player, I feel embarrassed for my former self that argued the gacha system is totally fine because you don't need to spend money. I was in deep, all I really wanted was to keep playing my game. Like, at least being subject to the same rules as gambling seems fair because that's what gacha is.

thats like subjecting bettery scooters to the same rules as cars

Elfforkusu · May 21, 2019

Fight the good fight, Belgium

Hopefully the US can follow suit

Nitpicker_Red · May 22, 2019

Gacha Santa Alter said:
Ironic FEH would be hit by this. I never saw the game as predatory. It showers you with so much premium currency and free quests to earn more I never felt the need to spend. Plus the gameplay mechanics are built in a way that it's arguably easier to build lower rarity characters to ridiculous levels of broken-ness than it is to make a high rarity character really strong.

Nintendo is overreacting to the Belgian ambiguïty (now thechnically banned, but no action was taken beside the main 3 games they looked at). Either to appear lawful and avoid any potential criticism, or put pressure on Belgium lawmakers to clarify the ban or create a license. (Incidentally the Belgian ban is also to appear lawful based on existing Gambling laws, and to put pressure on the industry to self-regulate.)

Fire Emblem Heroes & Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp will cease to exist in Belgium (microtransaction laws issue)

justiceiro

The Adder

Deleted member 5535

User requested account closure

Linde

Busaiku

Teyvat Traveler

Asuka3+1

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Nitpicker_Red

Tempy

Sandfox

Gacha Santa Alter

Aexact

Asuka3+1

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Elfforkusu

Nitpicker_Red