{"id":46811,"date":"2018-09-11T14:30:00","date_gmt":"2018-09-11T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2018\/09\/belgian_government_launches_criminal_investigation_into_ea_over_illegal_fifa_loot_boxes"},"modified":"2018-09-11T14:30:00","modified_gmt":"2018-09-11T14:30:00","slug":"belgian-government-launches-criminal-investigation-into-ea-over-illegal-fifa-loot-boxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2018\/09\/11\/belgian-government-launches-criminal-investigation-into-ea-over-illegal-fifa-loot-boxes\/","title":{"rendered":"Belgian Government Launches Criminal Investigation Into EA Over &#8220;Illegal&#8221; FIFA Loot Boxes"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/3c5d71214748c\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/3c5d71214748c\/small.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n<aside class=\"picture strip\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a title=\"Fifa19\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/3c5d71214748c\/fifa19.original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/3c5d71214748c\/fifa19.900x.jpg\" alt=\"Fifa19\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>The Belgian government has reportedly launched a criminal investigation into <strong>FIFA<\/strong> developer EA over a potential breach of gambling laws active in the country.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, the country&#8217;s\u00a0Gaming Commission declared that loot boxes present in <strong>Overwatch<\/strong>, <strong>Counter-Strike: Global<\/strong> <strong>Offensive<\/strong>, and EA&#8217;s <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/fifa_18\">FIFA 18<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0would be\u00a0examined under\u00a0Belgian gambling laws. Described as\u00a0an\u00a0&#8220;illegal game of chance&#8221; by the Commission, the loot boxes could be deemed illegal for failing to ensure that minors aren&#8217;t subjected to gambling, with the unknown nature of the loot boxes&#8217; rewards being to blame.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The news comes from\u00a0<a class=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/nl.metrotime.be\/2018\/09\/10\/news\/brussels-parket-voert-onderzoek-naar-ea-voor-loot-boxes-in-spel-fifa-18\/\">Belgium publication Metro<\/a>,\u00a0which states that the Gaming Commission\u00a0follows the belief that &#8220;players do not know exactly what the [loot box] contains when they make a purchase&#8221;, with a player&#8217;s happiness being determined by &#8220;whether or not you receive a rare object&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>In response to this, a handful of developers decided to remove all loot box options from their games in the country, with the likes of Blizzard and 2K Games playing things safe. EA has opted to ignore these warnings, however, resulting in this criminal investigation. The company&#8217;s CEO, Andrew Wilson, disagrees with the view that FIFA contains any form of gambling, stating that &#8220;players always receive a specified number of items in each pack&#8221; and that it doesn&#8217;t &#8220;provide or authorise any way to cash out or sell items or virtual currency for real money&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>According to Metro&#8217;s report, the case is\u00a0now the subject of a criminal investigation by the Brussels public prosecutor&#8217;s office. If it decides to prosecute, the case will go to court. Naturally, legal proceedings such as this can evolve and take place over large periods of time, so it may be some time before we hear of any results. Interestingly, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/fifa_19\"><strong>FIFA 19<\/strong><\/a> is still expected to include loot boxes, although all odds for potential items will be disclosed.<\/p>\n<p><em>As ever, feel free to share your thoughts on this one with us in the comments section below.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Belgian government has reportedly launched a criminal investigation into FIFA developer EA over a potential breach of gambling laws active in the country. Earlier this year, the country&#8217;s\u00a0Gaming Commission declared that loot boxes present in Overwatch, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and EA&#8217;s FIFA 18\u00a0would be\u00a0examined under\u00a0Belgian gambling laws. Described as\u00a0an\u00a0&#8220;illegal game of chance&#8221; by the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46811\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}