New research suggests that warnings for games with loot box-style mechanics are inconsistent and unreliable.
Conducted by Leon Y Xiao in co-operation with universities in Denmark, London and the US, the study examines a randomised selection of smartphone games which have loot boxes and are available to download from the Google Play Store. The study aimed to find out how consistent loot box presence warnings are across PEGI and the ERSB, as well as the consistency of age ratings on the Google Play Store as overseen by the IARC.
In August last year, Xiao looked into the implementation of Belgium’s loot box ban, and concluded that the country’s legislation had proved ineffective.
Xiao found that 60 percent of games included in this latest study were not rated similarly by PEGI and the ESRB. Among the 40 games which had different ratings, 88 percent were due to the ERSB not applying the loot box warning. Out of a random selection of 100 games on the Google Play Store, 71 percent of games with loot boxes were not labelled as such.