Last week, the Chinese government passed new regulations that require games publishers to detail likelihoods of in-game drops available for purchase.
In effect from 1 May 2017, the regulations state that publishers will need to confirm the following details surrounding in-game items like Overwatch’s infamous Loot Boxes:
- Name of item
- Property of item
- Content of item
- Quantity of item
- Draw probability of potential items
Here are the regulations themselves, as translated by chillybright of NeoGAF:
“2.6 – Online game publishers shall promptly publicly announce information about the name, property, content, quantity, and draw/forge probability of all virtual items and services that can be drawn/forge on the official website or a dedicated draw probability webpage of the game. The information on draw probability shall be true and effective.
“2.7 – Online game publishers shall publicly announce the random draw results by customers on notable places of official website or in game, and keep record for government inquiry. The record must be kept for more than 90 days. When publishing the random draw results, some measures should be taken place to protect user privacy.”
The law states that the probabilities must be clearly visible in a game’s website and store.
Do you applaud this decision, or would you rather be blissfully ignorant?
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