Changes to Apple’s iOS App Store could force some game developers to stop taking advantage of their customers through addictive, and sometimes necessary purchases to complete games.
“You’re cheating your sole source of income,” explained Jack Hilkewich, the Vice President of Interactive at Melcher Studios. “You’re treating them unfairly. You’re taking advantage of them.”
On Wednesday, Apple changed the requirements for games that offer “loot boxes” as in-app purchases. The changes mean developers are required to show the odds of receiving certain items in the loot box prior to purchase.
Defined as randomized virtual items for purchase, loot boxes vary from game to game, but traditionally they offer aesthetic items for the user, as well as “power-ups” or stronger items to help with tougher levels.
Alec Couros, a professor of information and communications technologies at the University of Regina, is a staunch critic of the loot box system.
“In some cases it’s very difficult, if not impossible, to complete games, and you require those loot boxes. You have no idea how much you might spend to complete that game.”
Loot boxes have been one of the most prominent methods game developers have used to monetize their games, and stories of players shelling out thousands of dollars on free-to-play games aren’t uncommon.
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Melcher Studios purposely doesn’t use loot boxes in their games, but Hilkewich wasn’t shy about their effectiveness.
“If you sell the game with the option of it generating you money through micro-transactions it’s very attractive to a developer, because of the cost of making a game.”
Critics of the loot box system say it’s not just the extra money that developers are making that’s the problem — it’s the method in which they function.
The lottery-style boxes don’t guarantee the user the item they want and some critics say in effect, they are sometimes introducing young children to the world of gambling.
Apple isn’t the first to create regulations surrounding the use of loot boxes. In May China installed similar rules for loot boxes in games across platforms.
Despite the new regulations, developers aren’t sure this will have a lasting effect.
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