There are tons of recent controversies and backlashes that EA had caused ever since the inclusion of mobile gaming elements in Star Wars Battlefront as well as other EA games that had the similar elements. Even other console/computer games had the similar elements as well including those released in Japan only like Border Break for Playstation 4 which actually had the microtransactions and loot boxes as to differentiate from the arcade counterpart but that is a topic for the other time. Most smartphone/tablet games have the microtransaction and loot-box elements in which you start the game with the default amount of basic and premium virtual currencies with the premium ones being obtained with real money or other ways. To consume the premium virtual currencies will be to use them to continue the game or perhaps, drawing random items like a pack of 10 random items for instance. You don't know what the actual 10 items are like since everything is randomized plus you're consuming tons of premium virtual currency for that. And I already know on how dangerous the microtransactions and loot-boxes are combined. You're trying to get a specific item that is much rarer than normally rare but this is not easy as it is some kind of luck.
For EA, they've been under criminal investigation for not complying with the Belgian law that goes against loot boxes. The serious consequence for violating that law is a paid fine or even worse, jail time and it looks like EA doesn't seem to learn or something. The worse thing is that the EA CEO tends to defend the loot box feature by saying that it is not gambling. The loot box feature combined with microtransaction is already a different way of gambling to me, that is, if a player spends real money on the microtransaction stuff for premium virtual currency and then using that currency just for the loot box feature like trying to look for something that is extremely rare. If you're going to defend this kind of gambling and tell us that we're missing out something or inferior to the others as if we don't have a complete set of ultra rare items 100% prepared, let me imagine that you're on the same boat as that EA CEO.
In case of a Belgian law that goes against loot-boxes in video games, many modern games are having that feature taken out to comply with that law as if many game developers had already obeyed that law. One dangerous example is the consumption of large premium virtual currency which is obtained with large amount of real money just to obtain a specific item that is extremely rare. Maybe those kind of cases are why is there a law that goes against loot boxes. In my opinion, it's a good move for me and that should prevent tons of real money from being spent on microtransactions, as if you can spend real money on something else like food, water and even rents.
A few famous gaming news YouTubers like SidAlpha, ReviewTechUSA and YongYea for instance, had already made videos about this and the reputation of EA has been quite bad as if the apologies and realizations of mistakes are kind of twisted or something.
