Teams urge U.S. to probe ‘loot box’ on Digital Arts video game

WASHINGTON, June 2 (Reuters) - Shopper advocates on Thursday urged U.S. regulators to investigate video game maker Digital Arts Inc (EA.O) for what they say was the deceptive use of a digital "loot box" that "aggressively" urges gamers to spend more money whereas playing a popular soccer sport.

The groups Fairplay, Center for Digital Democracy and 13 other organizations urged the Federal Trade Commission to probe the EA game "FIFA: Ultimate Group".

In the sport, gamers construct a soccer crew utilizing avatars of actual gamers and compete towards different teams. In a letter to the FTC, the teams stated the sport often prices $50 to $100 but that the corporate pushed push players to spend extra.

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"It entices players to purchase packs searching for special players," mentioned the letter despatched by these teams together with the Consumer Federation of America and Massachusetts Council on Gaming and Health and others.

The packs, or loot boxes, are packages of digital content material sometimes purchased with real money that give the purchaser a potential advantage in a recreation. They are often bought with digital forex, which might obscure how a lot is spent, they stated.

"The possibilities of opening a coveted card, similar to a Player of the Yr, are miniscule except a gamer spends 1000's of dollars on points or plays for hundreds of hours to earn cash," the groups said in the letter.

Digital Arts stated in an announcement on Thursday that of the sport's tens of millions of players, 78% haven't made an in-game buy.

"Spending is always elective," a company spokesperson stated in an e-mail statement. "We encourage using parental controls, including spend controls, which are obtainable for every main gaming platform, together with EA's personal platforms."

The spokesperson also mentioned the company created a dashboard so players would track how a lot time they performed, how many packs they opened and what purchases had been made.

The FTC, which works after companies engaged in misleading behavior, held a workshop on loot boxes in 2019. In a "staff perspective" which adopted, the agency famous that video game microtransactions have become a multibillion-dollar market.

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Reporting by Diane Bartz in Washington Editing by David Gregorio and Matthew Lewis

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