A new BBC investigation claims that almost all of the currently best-selling mobile games that contain loot boxes break rules on how they are advertised.
The BBC report notes that in the UK the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) will ban and remove gaming adverts if those adverts do not make it clear that the games contain loot boxes.
However, the report states that among the best-selling games on the Google Play store, the vast majority of those with loot boxes do not make it clear in their ads.
Their research looked at the 45 top-grossing games on the Google Play Store, of which 26 were labeled in the store as including loot boxes.
Of those 26 games, only two made it clear in their ads that they contained loot boxes. The others only mention loot boxes in their Google Play Store listing, which are found by tapping a small information button.
The current top-grossing loot box game, Monopoly Go, is reportedly among those that don’t mention loot boxes in their ads.
The report also quotes Leon Y Xiao, a video game regulation researcher at Copenhagen IT University, who says the BBC’s findings are in line with preliminary results from his own research, which finds that around 90% of games with loot boxes do not. Don’t reveal this in your ads.
Adrian Hon, director of mobile developer Six to Start (which primarily focuses on mobile fitness games), told the BBC that the games industry had a responsibility to be transparent with its players.
Instead, he says he has a habit of “conveniently ignoring or forgetting regulations that could interfere with his ability to sell to players.”
“We know that many people, including children, struggle with overspending on loot boxes,” he said. “The least gaming companies could do is reveal the presence of loot boxes, but they won’t even do that; it’s a criticism of their priorities and lack of attention to vulnerable players.”
