‘Call of Duty’ Mobile” & “Candy Crush’ Creator CEO Discusses Loot Boxes Legal Scrutiny
Loot Boxes has been in the regular and the online gambling news a lot. Overall, people feel that Loot Boxes are just as addictive as real money gambling games. For those that are not familiar, when playing a video game, you may come in contact with a prize crate or a loot crate. These prize crates and loot crates go by different names [other than loot boxes]. However, they are a virtual item that is consumable, which you can redeem an actual [but virtual] prize. Furthermore, the games select these virtual prizes at random [similar to how a slot machine uses a random number generator]. While this seems as innocent as upgrading a players gaming avatar, you can also buy weapons and body armor for first-person shooter games. Recently, an article in Variety.com by Brian Crecente called “Candy Crush’ Creator on Loot Boxes, ‘Call of Duty’ Mobile”, it discusses the increased legal scrutiny. Also, it discusses how it impacts the corporation’s billion-dollar microtransactions.
What Games Have Loot Boxes And Are They As Addictive As Real Money Gambling?
We are going to discuss the impact of the legal scrutiny on loot boxes from the person that creates “Candy Crush’ and ‘Call of Duty’ Mobile”. However, Call Of Duty may have loot boxes but we don’t believe Candy Crush Saga Does. In the Variety news article, Riccardo Zacconi says “Our strategy is to focus first and foremost on making the game the most fun,”. After that, he goes on to say “Retention is our first concern, not monetization. We focus on two-day, seven-day, 10-day retention. You have to have a very long view of the game, not a short-term view of monetization.”
While this is maybe a nice explanation for the companies investors, it appears that this worries parents of young children. Now, Candy Crush Saga is one of the most popular games online. However, King does not feel that the company relies on loot boxes to make money. Furthermore, it appears he thinks the throughout the past decade, video gaming revenue has come from Microtransactions that grant players more time. That said, this contradicts the premise that the majority of the money spent on video games come from loot boxes. But, this does not mean that they are not just as addictive as real money gambling, right?
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Most Video Games With Loot Boxes Are Free But Have Advertisements?
Above all, King believes that it is okay for their customers to play the video games free. However, he implents advertising to make his company money. In the Variety article, he says “Most of our players have never paid and it’s OK, we’re not trying to bring them in to pay,” Furthermore, he goes onto say that players have the option to watch the video advertisement. However, they can bypass watching the video by paying a fee. This is the same thing that Youtube does for Youtube Red, right?
Over the last week, his company releases a new video game “Candy Crush Friends Saga,”. Above all, there are many new costumes and characters in the video game. However, players can pay to unlock these features. Is that real money gambling? Well, maybe if it affects the player (especially if they are under the legal age to gamble).
Later on in the Variety news article, Zacconi says “We’re not going to go into loot boxes,” However Zacconi does say “Video advertising is a new area we are building out. We’re making sure you can continue to play as soon as the video is over and that it is relevant to the player.”
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