author: Krzysiek Kalwasinski
“We don't call them lootboxes. We look [at them] as surprise mechanics”. 8 times devs said too much and insulted players
Table of Contents
- Who said it? Kerry Hopkins of EA's Legal & Government Affairs.
- Where and when? British Parliament, June 2019.
Do you like surprise toys? In that case, as EA vice president said, you probably like lootboxes too. As the company representative admitted, the infamous boxes with random content are nothing more than a "surprise mechanic," which is very popular on the market of toys for children, according to her. There was even a comparison made to the Kinder Surprise chocolate eggs (which are, well, banned in the US).
It's worth mentioning here the premiere of Star Wars Battlefront 2. EA's production outraged players around the world. How? Well, as part of the beta tests, it turned out that microtransactions will not be too friendly to players. And containing the situation took a good while. The scandal grew to such proportions that an increasing number of organizations began to scrutinize similar mechanics. Therefore, this subject was raised during the meeting within the British Parliamentary Committee on Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in June 2019.
An EA representative was asked if she considered lootboxes to be ethical.
First, we don't call them lootboxes, we look [at them] as surprise mechanics. I think it's important to look at this. If you go to (...) a store that sells a lot of toys, and do a search for surprise toys, what you'll find is that (...) people enjoy surprises. It's something that has been part of toys for years, whether it's Kinder Eggs, Hatchimals or LOL Surprise. We do think the way we've implemented these mechanics into our games – FIFA of course is our big one (...) – is actually quite ethical and quite fun, enjoyable to people.
As we have noticed over the next few years, it doesn't seem that we will be able to say that boxes with random content or microtransactions are no longer a problem. However, EA also seems to be quite resilient to any suggestions that what they're doing is wrong. Unless a scandal breaks out. Such as when the company advertised FUT in a toy catalog. The profits from the entire venture are huge and it isn't surprising that the practice is still common. Money talks, and it says that players do enjoy virtual surprises.