Teams urge U.S. to probe ‘loot box’ on Electronic Arts online game

WASHINGTON, June 2 (Reuters) - Consumer advocates on Thursday urged U.S. regulators to investigate video game maker Digital Arts Inc (EA.O) for what they say was the misleading use of a digital "loot box" that "aggressively" urges players to spend more cash while playing a well-liked soccer game.

The teams Fairplay, Center for Digital Democracy and 13 different organizations urged the Federal Trade Commission to probe the EA game "FIFA: Final Group".

Within the recreation, players build a soccer group utilizing avatars of real gamers and compete against other groups. In a letter to the FTC, the groups said the game often prices $50 to $100 however that the company pushed push gamers to spend extra.

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"It entices players to buy packs searching for special gamers," stated the letter sent by these teams together with the Shopper Federation of America and Massachusetts Council on Gaming and Well being and others.

The packs, or loot boxes, are packages of digital content sometimes bought with real money that give the purchaser a possible benefit in a recreation. They can be purchased with digital foreign money, which can obscure how a lot is spent, they stated.

"The chances of opening a coveted card, similar to a Player of the Year, are miniscule until a gamer spends hundreds of dollars on factors or plays for hundreds of hours to earn cash," the groups said in the letter.

Electronic Arts said in an announcement on Thursday that of the sport's tens of millions of players, 78% haven't made an in-game buy.

"Spending is always non-compulsory," an organization spokesperson stated in an e mail statement. "We encourage the usage of parental controls, including spend controls, which might be obtainable for every major gaming platform, including EA's own platforms."

The spokesperson additionally stated the company created a dashboard so players would track how much time they performed, how many packs they opened and what purchases had been made.

The FTC, which fits after firms engaged in deceptive habits, held a workshop on loot containers in 2019. In a "workers perspective" which followed, the company noted that video game microtransactions have grow to be a multibillion-dollar market.

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Reporting by Diane Bartz in Washington Editing by David Gregorio and Matthew Lewis

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