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OpenCritic labels games with loot box mechanics

Review aggregator OpenCritic will now label games with loot box mechanics, it today confirmed.

After a pledge to do back in October 2017, the site is now ready to roll out said labels.

“While it’s taken us a little while to actually implement these changes,” the site admitted, “we’re proud to announce that we’ve finally introduced this new label.

“Games that use “loot box” mechanics now have a prominent notification.”

The site’s statement continues to say that the “OpenCritic team believes that loot boxes are a net-negative for the video game industry. Loot boxes prey on human’s generally poor ability to accurately understand and internalize probabilities, especially at the extremes. Rather than offer in-game items directly, loot boxes are used to mask the underlying cost of extremely attractive items.”

You can read OpenCritic’s full statement here. Already, games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, FIFA 19, NBA 2K19, Injustice 2 and Overwatch have been flagged as possessing loot boxes.

Stevivor is an outlet featured on OpenCritic’s site. You can find our reviews here.


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Steve Wright

Steve's the owner of this very site and an active games journalist nearing twenty (TWENTY!?!) years. He's a Canadian-Australian gay gaming geek, ice hockey player and fan. Husband to Matt and cat dad to Wally and Quinn.