Teams urge U.S. to probe ‘loot box’ on Electronic Arts online game

WASHINGTON, June 2 (Reuters) - Consumer 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 players to spend extra money while enjoying a preferred soccer sport.

The groups Fairplay, Middle for Digital Democracy and 13 other organizations urged the Federal Trade Commission to probe the EA sport "FIFA: Final Staff".

Within the sport, players construct a soccer staff utilizing avatars of actual gamers and compete in opposition to different groups. In a letter to the FTC, the teams mentioned the sport normally prices $50 to $100 however that the company pushed push players to spend more.

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"It entices players to buy packs looking for special gamers," mentioned the letter despatched by these groups 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 sometimes purchased with actual money that give the purchaser a possible advantage in a sport. They can be bought with digital currency, which might obscure how a lot is spent, they said.

"The chances of opening a coveted card, reminiscent of a Player of the Year, are miniscule except a gamer spends hundreds of dollars on points or plays for 1000's of hours to earn coins," the groups mentioned in the letter.

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

"Spending is all the time optionally available," a company spokesperson stated in an e mail statement. "We encourage using parental controls, together with spend controls, which can be accessible for each main gaming platform, together with EA's personal platforms."

The spokesperson additionally said the company created a dashboard so gamers would track how much time they played, how many packs they opened and what purchases have been made.

The FTC, which goes after corporations engaged in deceptive habits, held a workshop on loot containers in 2019. In a "staff perspective" which followed, the agency noted that video game microtransactions have turn out to be a multibillion-dollar market.

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

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