A new ESRB ratings label now identifies those games with loot box mechanics and other in-game purchases.
The label will appear below a game’s rating and reads, “In-Game Purchases (Includes Random Items)”. The label will apply to titles with loot boxes, item or card packs, gacha games, prize wheels and treasure chests.
“This new Interactive Element, In-Game Purchases (Includes Random Items), will be assigned to any game that contains in-game offers to purchase digital goods or premiums with real world currency (or with virtual coins or other forms of in-game currency that can be purchases with real world currency) for which the player doesn’t know prior to purchase the specific digital goods or premiums they will be receiving (e.g., loot boxes, item packs, mystery awards),” the ESRB said in an announcement.
Back in June 2019, Electronic Arts defended loot boxes as “surprise mechanics,” saying “it’s like many other products that people enjoy in a healthy way, and like the element of surprise.”
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