The Pan-European Game Information body announced plans to raise the age rating for games featuring loot boxes to 16 as part of a new series of changes.
Announced late last week, the video game ratings organization will implement the age change in June. The change will impact a variety of popular titles, including EA Sports FC. Anything that contains loot boxes will automatically be rated PEGI 16. Loot boxes are in-game options that allow players to buy additional items using real or virtual currency.
Some games may potentially be labeled with PEGI 18. The rating will reportedly be applied to titles released after June. Games with daily quests will get PEGI 7 ratings. If they pressure users into returning each day, the rating will increase to PEGI 12. Meanwhile, any game that does not allow a player to report or block others online will receive a PEGI 18 rating. Games with NFTs will also get a PEGI 18 Rating.
“With the updated set of age rating criteria, PEGI aims to make parents aware that certain features in games should be carefully assessed, and that parental tools can be a very helpful assistant when doing that,” said the PEGI Council Chair, Beate Våje.
The latest change comes amidst studies comparing games with loot boxes to gambling addictions.
According to a survey conducted by Central Queensland University, many popular video games feature these costly add-ons. In the modern world, nearly all adolescents aged 12 to 24 reported having played a game featuring loot boxes. On average, children and teens ranging from ages 12 to 17 spent an average of $50 each month on loot boxes. Meanwhile, young adults aged 18 to 24 spent approximately $72 per month on additional features. Those who invested money in purchasing loot boxes tended to have a propensity to develop a gambling problem later in life.
Similarities tended to lie in the players’ motivations. Much like gambling, they purchased these loot boxes because spending was linked to more success within the game.
According to Harvard Business School, overall, as of 2023, video game companies generate an annual profit of $15 billion from these loot boxes. Approximately 90% of this money comes from players who are attached to or obsessed with the game itself.
“Video games provide an amazing sandbox to study consumer behavior on digital platforms, as well as the effects of product and platform design on this behavior,” said associate professor at Columbia Business School, Andrey Simonov. “While the video game market is large in terms of consumer expenditures, and even larger in terms of the attention share it captures, understanding why consumers engage with digital products is important beyond this market—for instance, gambling-like motives also drive media and entertainment consumption.”
