Beneath the label: unsatisfactory compliance with ESRB, PEGI, and IARC industry self-regulation requiring loot box presence warning labels by video game companies

Abstract

Loot boxes in video games are a form of in-game transactions with randomised elements. Concerns have been raised about loot boxes’ similarities with gambling and their potential harms (e.g., overspending). Recognising players’ and parents’ concerns, in mid-2020, the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) and PEGI (Pan-European Game Information) announced that games containing loot boxes or any forms of in-game transactions with randomised elements will be marked by a new label stating ‘In-Game Purchases (Includes Random Items)’. The same label has also been adopted by the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC) and thereby assigned to games available on digital storefronts, e.g., the Google Play Store. The label is intended to provide more information to consumers and allow them to make more informed purchasing decisions. This measure is not legally-binding and has been adopted as industry self-regulation or corporate social responsibility. Previous research has suggested that industry self-regulation might not be effectively complied with due to conflicting commercial interests. Poor compliance with the ESRB’s, PEGI’s, and IARC’s loot box presence warning label was demonstrated in two ways. Firstly, 60.6% of all games so labelled by either the ESRB or PEGI (or 25.7% using a more equitable methodology) were not labelled by the other. Such inconsistencies were most likely caused by one age rating organisation failing to accurately identify loot box presence. Secondly, 71.0% of popular games containing loot boxes on the Google Play Store (whose age rating system is regulated through IARC) did not display the label and were therefore non-compliant. At present, consumers and parents cannot rely on this self-regulatory measure to provide accurate information as to loot box presence, particularly in relation to mobile games. The mere existence of this measure cannot be used to justify the non-regulation of loot boxes by governments, given the poor compliance and doubtful efficacy (even if when complied with satisfactorily). Improvements to the existing age rating systems are proposed. Preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/e6qbm (date of in-principle acceptance: 12 January 2023).

Illegal video game loot boxes with transferable content on Steam: a longitudinal study on their presence and non-compliance with and non-enforcement of gambling law

“…In total, 36 entries (35 individual games and the Steam platform's trading card system) were identified as infringing the current gambling law of many countries per the pronounced interpretations of national gambling regulators [e.g., 18,21] . Games containing paid loot boxes whose content is transferable were very rarely identified in mobile contexts: very few examples (e.g., Auto Chess (Dragonest, 2019)) were discovered by previous loot box prevalence and regulatory compliance studies on mobile platforms [24,37,[41][42][43] . The present study comprehensively studied the Steam platform and is therefore able to report a substantial number of loot box implementations that are suspected to be illegal in many countries.…”

“…In addition, age rating organisations have introduced a warning label ('In-Game Purchases (Includes Random Items)') to denote games containing loot boxes and began assigning this to games from April 2020 [34][35][36][37][38] . This industry self-regulation has technically not been formally introduced to the Steam platform as it is not a participating storefront of the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC), which is responsible for assigning the label to digitally released games [39] .…”

“…This industry self-regulation has technically not been formally introduced to the Steam platform as it is not a participating storefront of the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC), which is responsible for assigning the label to digitally released games [39] . This measure has been poorly implemented on the mobile Google Play Store platform [37] and participating storefronts for PC and console games [40] . However, at least for FIFA 23 (Electronic Arts, 2022), the game's Steam product page displayed the label as of 19 February 2023.…”

“…However, at least for FIFA 23 (Electronic Arts, 2022), the game's Steam product page displayed the label as of 19 February 2023. In contrast, no label was displayed for another game, NARAKA: BLADEPOINT (NetEase, 2021), which was deemed by the European age rating organisation to contain loot boxes and duly labelled [37,40] . The present study sought also to assess whether this measure has been effectively implemented for loot boxcontaining games on the Steam platform.…”

Shopping Around for Loot Box Presence Warning Labels: Unsatisfactory Compliance on Epic, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft Platforms

“…One alternative to legal regulation is industry self-regulation [42]. This is when platforms (both hardware, like Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo, or software, like the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store [44,46]), trade bodies (such as the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) in the USA [15]), or companies decide to adopt certain measures to enhance consumer protection by going above and beyond existing legal requirements [29,39]. This approach has certain benefits, such as being quicker than legal regulation at responding to novel developments in the industry and possessing specialist video game knowledge that more general governmental regulators might lack [46].…”