belgium have now forbidden the sale of loot boxes. that likely includes gift chests in heroes of the storm. xhttps://www.nrk.no/hordaland/spillselskap-gir-opp-_-stopper-salg-av-belonningspakker-i-belgia-1.14408802
they can punish people with prison, no matter where they are.
Mean trouble? This is your knight in shining armour to the gaming industry, toss a rose will ya.
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i mean trouble for blizzard. if they break the law in belgium, their staff could get arrested.
In practice that would never happen due to jurisdiction.
people are subject to the laws in the countries in which they are.
Is this a new issue to what was addressed here?
likely the same but, norwegian news mentioned it recently.
I don’t think actiblizz’s legal team are that incompetent to neglect this issue so much that the police would get involved. After all, it’s not like these things are just implemented overnight and without announcement.
In the longer term, this is probably a benefit for the customers if not the developers. To date I have never seen a lootbox system actually add anything to the experience of a game. It’s always bad and it’s always exploitative to the point I couldn’t even imagine a way for this system to be good even if the potential of spending money on it was removed.
It was popular with game devs/publishers because it could generate revenue approximately equal to the base price of the game but it took almost half the development resources (if actiblizz is to be a trusted source) of the actual game to develop. I hope the popularity of loot boxes dies soon.
Did you ever realized the fact that Blizzard games don’t sell lootboxes in belgium already ?
they are only available through leveling up or events only in countries that forbid looboxes for real money. Players in coutries like Belgium can’t even buy lootboxes for gems they get every 150 levels in HotS.
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@Ihateclowns, Brutalnot, you just prove my point- you are not more than 15 years old 
From my understanding it’s specifically that they can’t buy lootboxes, aren’t the microtransactions for specific skins still fine in Belguim?
Also, between my severe lack of interest in this and my laziness from looking it up, were you complaining that the belgium authorities would confiscate money that was used to break this law? Isn’t that pretty much standard practice world wide for money used in illegal transactions? Do you think when they arrest a drug dealer they let them keep whatever money they find stuffed in his mattress if they can prove it was earned illegally?
@Kalitas- it’s not the problem with Heroes loot boxes and micro-transactions, but the loot boxes/ card packs in game like Fifa/NBA/Madden/ etc., that have a chance to give you a better/top tier player, that you cant unlock with in-game currency, that easy. It’s not problem to buy Viper Genji, or Lil’Ragnaros directly. Problem is that, those skins can be obtain though loot boxes and they dont have a gem price at them, so if you want, you can buy them for real money, and to pass those loot boxes.
To be precise:
Belgium doesn’t allow buying lootboxes with real money, that’s teh law and Blizzard obliged, they disabled that option entirely.
Belgium players only receive lootboxes from leveling up, events and brawls.
You can still buy items for real money like skins, mounts bundles.
Microtransactions are not the target of the anti-lootbox law.
The issue was with addictive effects of lootboxes as many countries consider this as gambling. Imputing real money to your blizzard account, buying gems and buying skins, mounts and bundles is not gambling because you know exactly what you get and is up to a player discretion towards what they buy.
If you don’t know how to interpret the law of your own country, do not rely on internet to do it for you, go see an attorney to have it explained. There are many attorneys that provide free service to explain legislation and regulation.
Not knowing the law is your problem.
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