Teams urge U.S. to probe ‘loot field’ on Digital Arts video game

WASHINGTON, June 2 (Reuters) - Consumer advocates on Thursday urged U.S. regulators to research video game maker Digital Arts Inc (EA.O) for what they say was the deceptive use of a digital "loot box" that "aggressively" urges gamers to spend more money while enjoying a well-liked soccer recreation.

The teams Fairplay, Heart for Digital Democracy and 13 other organizations urged the Federal Trade Commission to probe the EA recreation "FIFA: Ultimate Staff".

Within the recreation, players construct a soccer team utilizing avatars of actual gamers and compete in opposition to other groups. In a letter to the FTC, the teams stated the sport normally prices $50 to $100 but that the company pushed push players to spend more.

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"It entices players to buy packs in search of special gamers," said the letter sent by these teams together with the Consumer Federation of America and Massachusetts Council on Gaming and Well being and others.

The packs, or loot packing containers, are packages of digital content material sometimes purchased with real cash that give the purchaser a possible advantage in a game. They can be bought with digital foreign money, which might obscure how much is spent, they said.

"The probabilities of opening a coveted card, reminiscent of a Player of the 12 months, are miniscule until a gamer spends thousands of dollars on points or performs for thousands of hours to earn coins," the teams said within the letter.

Electronic Arts said in a statement on Thursday that of the game's hundreds of thousands of players, 78% have not made an in-game purchase.

"Spending is at all times elective," a company spokesperson stated in an e-mail statement. "We encourage the use of parental controls, including spend controls, which are out there for each major gaming platform, together with EA's own platforms."

The spokesperson additionally said the corporate created a dashboard so players would track how a lot time they played, what number of packs they opened and what purchases have been made.

The FTC, which fits after companies engaged in misleading behavior, held a workshop on loot containers in 2019. In a "employees perspective" which followed, the company noted that online game microtransactions have develop into a multibillion-dollar market.

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Reporting by Diane Bartz in Washington Editing by David Gregorio and Matthew Lewis

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