The fuzzy line between loot boxes and gambling is about to get a lot less blurry as a new lawsuit has surfaced suing Apple Inc. for its use of loot box games in its App Store. Countries around the world have been waging their own individual wars against gaming’s most hated monetization practice but if the US District Court in California rules in favor of the people and against Apple Inc. – it could be a major blow against the use of pay-to-win loot boxes and gambling mechanics in video games on a grand scale.
[Games Industry dot biz] Class action lawsuit brought against Apple over loot boxes https://bit.ly/30XnVaz
[The Guardian] UK could class loot boxes as gambling to protect children https://bit.ly/2V0ldx2
[FTC] FTC workshop looks into loot boxes https://bit.ly/2VbxEXz
[ESRB] Introducing a New Interactive Element: In-Game Purchases (Includes Random Items) https://bit.ly/2REpFzV
[Games Industry dot biz] Federal Trade Commission will investigate video game loot boxes https://bit.ly/34HdNT5
[European Gaming] The Netherlands and Belgium ban PUBG loot boxes https://bit.ly/2V92nEp
[Games Industry dot biz] EA’s Ultimate Team now worth $800 million annually https://bit.ly/2V5AFbE
[Games Industry dot biz] Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft to require loot box odds disclosure https://bit.ly/2xl4FYh
About This Source - Inside Gaming
Inside Gaming is a Rooster Teeth news channel and the official gaming news division of Rooster Teeth.
Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California. It is considered one of the Big Tech technology companies, alongside Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook.
Well known products and services from the brand include the iPad tablet computer, AirPods wireless earbuds, iOS, iTunes, the Safari web browser, Apple Music, iCloud and Apple Pay.
Apple was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne in April 1976. Apple went public in 1980. In August 2018, Apple became the first publicly traded U.S. company to be valued at over $1 trillion and just two years later in August 2020 became the first $2 trillion U.S. company.
The company employs 137,000 full-time employees and maintains 510 retail stores in 25 countries as of 2020.
Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Western Europe. It is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to the southwest, and the North Sea to the northwest.
It covers an area of 30,689 km2 (11,849 sq mi) and has a population of more than 11.5 million, making it the 22nd most densely populated country in the world and the 6th most densely populated country in Europe, with a density of 376 per square kilometre (970/sq mi). The capital and largest city is Brussels; other major cities are Antwerp, Ghent, Charleroi, Liège, Bruges, Namur, and Leuven.
Legally, Belgium is a sovereign state and a federal constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system. Its institutional organization is complex and is structured on both regional and linguistic grounds. It is divided into three highly autonomous regions: the Flemish Region in the north, Wallonia in the south, and the Brussels-Capital Region.
California, a western U.S. state, stretches from the Mexican border along the Pacific for nearly 900 miles. Its terrain includes cliff-lined beaches, redwood forest, the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Central Valley farmland and the Mojave Desert. The city of Los Angeles is the seat of the Hollywood entertainment industry. Hilly San Francisco is known for the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Island and cable cars.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) is an American multinational technology company with headquarters in Redmond, Washington. It develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services.
The Netherlands, informally Holland, is a country primarily located in Western Europe and partly in the Caribbean, forming the largest constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. In Europe, it consists of 12 provinces that border Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, with maritime borders in the North Sea with those countries and the United Kingdom. In the Caribbean, it consists of three special municipalities: the islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba. The country’s official language is Dutch, with West Frisian as a secondary official language in the province of Friesland, and English and Papiamentu as secondary official languages in the Caribbean Netherlands. Dutch Low Saxon and Limburgish are recognised regional languages (spoken in the east and southeast respectively), while Sinte Romani and Yiddish are recognised non-territorial languages.
Sony Corporation is the holding company of the Sony Group which comprises Sony Electronics, Sony Semiconductor Solutions, Sony Pictures, Sony Music, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Financial Holdings, and others.
