Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft have announced an initiative that will require publishers to disclose drop rate odds for all games that include loot boxes to get them released on consoles.
The new measures were initially announced earlier today by the Entertainment Software Association's chief counsel of tech policy Michael Warnecke (as reported by GamesIndustry.biz), during a Federal Trade Commission workshop intended to "examine consumer protection issues related to video game loot boxes".
Since then, the ESA (which represents the video games industry in the US) has released a full statement on the matter, confirming that Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony "will require paid loot boxes in games developed for their platforms to disclose information on the relative rarity or probability of obtaining randomised virtual items."
Additionally, the new measures, which are expected to be implemented next year, will apply to all games that add loot boxes in a post-launch update.
According to the ESA, a number of publishers - specifically, Activision Blizzard, Bandai Namco, Bethesda, Bungie, Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, Take-Two, Ubisoft, Warner Bros, and Wizards of the Coast - have all agreed to disclose the "relative rarity or probability of obtaining in-game virtual items from purchased loot boxes" in their own titles, and "in a manner that is understandable and easily accessed". This will occur "no later than the end of 2020".
Loot boxes, and their potentially harmful effects, have become an increasing concern among politicians and legislators in recent times.
In May, US Senator Josh Hawley proposed legislation that would prohibit loot boxes, pay-to-win mechanics, and other "manipulative design" in games targeted toward children, while several European countries have already taken more definitive measures.
Last year, for instance, Belgium and the Netherlands both declared loot boxes to be a form of gambling, and therefore illegal, resulting in publishers removing the monetisation method from a number of games, including FIFA, Overwatch, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
At present, it's unclear whether any of the measures announced by the ESA today will be applicable to territories beyond the US, but Eurogamer has contacted Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft for clarification and further details.
That is fucking bullshit. I know about it first hand since I've fallen into the "lootbox trap" myself (thankfully I've been able to get myself out of it).
First of all, those odds mean nothing. All it matters is that there's a miniscule chance of getting what you want. Second of all, even if the odds are shown (I've indulged in those) they just create "extra offers" and "deals of the day" where some odds for some things are improved slightly and people (myself included) go on a spending spree.
Seriously, fuck that shit. I've personally spent a lot of money on loot boxes, which I don't really regret since it taught me some very valuable lessons (I count this money as money spent on a seminar that actually worked for me), and that's only because I was able to (reluctantly) step away from it all. In my opinion randomness in games is fine as long as it's part of the game itself (Diablo, Borderlands and other games that have in-game loot). The moment you introduce external random stuff that you need to spend money on it's unacceptable (note that DLC's, cosmetics etc. are fine, as long as it's a fixed thing - ie: I pay $5 to get this skin/DLC, not a chance to get it).
I really fucking hate the direction modern popular games take. And now I have an additional bother with it with my kids, who want to play stuff like roblox, fortnite or brawl stars and all of them tick all the wrong boxes for me. I'm really fighting an uphill battle here as I'm trying to introduce my son to games that are actually good, you can play them multiplayer etc. but at the same time I'll have to force him to force it upon his peers (potentially marking him as a weirdo for not going mainstream) or give up and see my child grow up with stuff that can't even be called games in my opinion.
On August 09 2019 07:03 Manit0u wrote: I really fucking hate the direction modern popular games take. And now I have an additional bother with it with my kids, who want to play stuff like roblox, fortnite or brawl stars and all of them tick all the wrong boxes for me. I'm really fighting an uphill battle here as I'm trying to introduce my son to games that are actually good, you can play them multiplayer etc. but at the same time I'll have to force him to force it upon his peers (potentially marking him as a weirdo for not going mainstream) or give up and see my child grow up with stuff that can't even be called games in my opinion.
It's fucking tragic what it is.
if your son is young i respectfully recommend Nintendo's Mario games. NES Super Mario 3 is absolutely awesome for kids. I'm almost 100% positive you can get that game on the Switch.
If you want to protect your kid I'd say all of Nintendo's 1st party titles from the NES, SNES, and N64 are great.
I'd say the most sneakily brilliant money making machine for getting kids to spend their parents money was Skylanders. Kids lost those stupid plastic figures at a rate unseen in the history of the civilized world.
On August 09 2019 07:03 Manit0u wrote: I really fucking hate the direction modern popular games take. And now I have an additional bother with it with my kids, who want to play stuff like roblox, fortnite or brawl stars and all of them tick all the wrong boxes for me. I'm really fighting an uphill battle here as I'm trying to introduce my son to games that are actually good, you can play them multiplayer etc. but at the same time I'll have to force him to force it upon his peers (potentially marking him as a weirdo for not going mainstream) or give up and see my child grow up with stuff that can't even be called games in my opinion.
It's fucking tragic what it is.
if your son is young i respectfully recommend Nintendo's Mario games. NES Super Mario 3 is absolutely awesome for kids. I'm almost 100% positive you can get that game on the Switch.
If you want to protect your kid I'd say all of Nintendo's 1st party titles from the NES, SNES, and N64 are great.
I'd say the most sneakily brilliant money making machine for getting kids to spend their parents money was Skylanders. Kids lost those stupid plastic figures at a rate unseen in the history of the civilized world.
The problem isn't really getting my kid games. The problem is coordinating it with parents of his friends to also get them. Otherwise you're just giving your kids an alternative to what they get exposed to at school, which is nice and they'll enjoy it, but ultimately they'll stick with playing stuff they can discuss with their friends.
It's really a nightmare now for people with even a bit of awareness. So what if you're trying to limit your child's time spent with tablets and mobile phones? 90% of people give their kids unrestricted access because it's just easier and then kids who don't get that (or, gods forbid, don't have their own smartphones at age of 7 or so) are ostracized and treated as lame in school which is also bad for them.
It's pretty much Kierkegard's Either/Or where you don't really have any good choices. It's also a strange matter of the speed of sound, where your parents are telling you something when you're fifteen and it actually gets to you when you're in your thirties...
Blizzard remained at 32 Million MAU's this quarter. This is the first time in two years MAUs have not fallen. Operating Margin rose from an all time low of 16% up to 20% this quarter. If Blizzard's revenue and MAU's can remain stable the next few months and their operating margins rise ... I think ATVI top execs will view the cutbacks as strategically correct and well executed by Blizzard management.
I just want to mention to the lootbox percentages.
I don't know how in the World, but in the Czech Republic most people don't understand how chance and percentage works properly. And I'm not joking, I'm 20 years from the elementary school, yet at my time out of 40 people from the last year 10 people knew how percentages work properly(and I'm not talking about the banking loan percentages, but how much is 20 % from 100(I'm NOT joking, out of those 40 people around 10 would be able to answer that off the top of head)). I'm not joking. And we were not the worst school in the area. And now realize you have to combine it with higher math to understand how the chance actually works(because 25 % chance on the win doesn't mean you buy 4 and you have 1 guaranteed, unless the seller is really pro-consumer).
I dare to say that many people have misleading understanding how this works and it won't help much. Which was supported by what Manitou wrote
if you dig into the ATVI investor call slides you will see Blizzard remained steady at 32 Million MAUs. Its the first time in 2 years Blizzard's user base has not declined. In the investor call they stated Overwatch MAUs remained stable quarter over quarter due to the release of the World Builder thing. I guess the guy in this video didn't take the time to actually read through the presentation slides.
it is true that ATVI's MAU's are plummeting. Blizzard's MAU's are down a bit over 6 months. OW is down a bit.
if you dig into the ATVI investor call slides you will see Blizzard remained steady at 32 Million MAUs. Its the first time in 2 years Blizzard's user base has not declined. In the investor call they stated Overwatch MAUs remained stable quarter over quarter due to the release of the World Builder thing. I guess the guy in this video didn't take the time to actually read through the presentation slides.
it is true that ATVI's MAU's are plummeting. Blizzard's MAU's are down a bit over 6 months. OW is down a bit.
WoW MAUs increased due to Classic and new content. Hearthstone MAUs increased due to new expansion.
If OW MAUs also increased then why did overall MAUs remain the same? One of those titles had to bleed users and the best bet here is OW, seeing how Blizzard recently started a campaign to grab influencers for OW due to declining engagement.
if you dig into the ATVI investor call slides you will see Blizzard remained steady at 32 Million MAUs. Its the first time in 2 years Blizzard's user base has not declined. In the investor call they stated Overwatch MAUs remained stable quarter over quarter due to the release of the World Builder thing. I guess the guy in this video didn't take the time to actually read through the presentation slides.
it is true that ATVI's MAU's are plummeting. Blizzard's MAU's are down a bit over 6 months. OW is down a bit.
WoW MAUs increased due to Classic and new content. Hearthstone MAUs increased due to new expansion.
If OW MAUs also increased then why did overall MAUs remain the same? One of those titles had to bleed users and the best bet here is OW, seeing how Blizzard recently started a campaign to grab influencers for OW due to declining engagement.
It is always strange to me how hard it is to get accurate numbers since I mostly play games on Steam. There you have hourly figures available for all and logged over time. There isn't any question about seasonal declines, the numbers are there if you wish to look.
Since I mostly play Dota 2 it is interesting how hard it is to get LoL numbers, we can only infer it is bigger due to stream numbers and very old historical data they stopped publishing after peaking (I think at least).
On August 10 2019 19:57 Manit0u wrote: WoW MAUs increased due to Classic and new content. Hearthstone MAUs increased due to new expansion.
no, the presentation slide states WoW's subscriber base increased. One can renew their monthly WoW account and remain an active WoW user without paying a subscription fee. Blizzard didn't say whether or not WoW MAU's went up or down.
On August 10 2019 21:45 Yurie wrote: It is always strange to me how hard it is to get accurate numbers since I mostly play games on Steam. .... ... Since I mostly play Dota 2 it is interesting how hard it is to get LoL numbers, we can only infer it is bigger due to stream numbers and very old historical data they stopped publishing after peaking (I think at least).
you make a great point. its pretty hilarious the convoluted BS #s these companies publish when things are going average or poorly. OTOH when things are on the rise and they're making huge cash publishers can't wait to instantly reveal hard unit sales and exact revenue #s while they puff their chest's out.
Look at how tricky Blizzard/ATVI is being with WoW in this quarter's financial reveal. They announce a very delimited positive event: an increase in subscribers for WoW. However, they do not say whether or not Active Users are up or down. I'd say its because Active User's are down. But, this is the BS that ATVI spews when things are not going their way. The convoluted stats the spewed during Destiny's time iwth Activision were a big exercise in obfuscation as well.
On August 10 2019 19:57 Manit0u wrote: WoW MAUs increased due to Classic and new content. Hearthstone MAUs increased due to new expansion.
no, the presentation slide states WoW's subscriber base increased. One can renew their monthly WoW account and remain an active WoW user without paying a subscription fee. Blizzard didn't say whether or not WoW MAU's went up or down.
A token sub earns Blizzard more money then a regular sub (20 euro's for a token used for 30 days of gametime vs 13 euro's for a sub for 30 days)
A person might not be paying their sub themselves, but someone else is still paying real money in their stead.
On August 10 2019 19:57 Manit0u wrote: WoW MAUs increased due to Classic and new content. Hearthstone MAUs increased due to new expansion.
no, the presentation slide states WoW's subscriber base increased. One can renew their monthly WoW account and remain an active WoW user without paying a subscription fee. Blizzard didn't say whether or not WoW MAU's went up or down.
A token sub earns Blizzard more money then a regular sub (20 euro's for a token used for 30 days of gametime vs 13 euro's for a sub for 30 days)
A person might not be paying their sub themselves, but someone else is still paying real money in their stead.
And that person isn't necessarily an active user. ATVI made no comment on whether WoW MAUs were up or down. Because they made no comment I'd say they are down. ATVI puts out whatever positive #s they can. They don't hide positive news. This has been a consistent pattern of behaviour with ATVI since Blizzard and Activision merged to form ATVI. That's why we no longer get WoW subscriber #s. They are bad news.
So when you mash up all this info and compare it with the fact that Blizzard remained steady at 32 Million MAUs this quarter it makes the youtuber's claim that Overwatch MAU's are declining sharply hard to believe. It wouldn't be the first time a 1-man-show youtube guy who jams together a video in a few hours at most .. had incomplete research. He is entertaining though.. I'll give him that. The other part of his headline about the ATVI user base in steep decline is correct.
On August 10 2019 19:57 Manit0u wrote: WoW MAUs increased due to Classic and new content. Hearthstone MAUs increased due to new expansion.
no, the presentation slide states WoW's subscriber base increased. One can renew their monthly WoW account and remain an active WoW user without paying a subscription fee. Blizzard didn't say whether or not WoW MAU's went up or down.
A token sub earns Blizzard more money then a regular sub (20 euro's for a token used for 30 days of gametime vs 13 euro's for a sub for 30 days)
A person might not be paying their sub themselves, but someone else is still paying real money in their stead.
And that person isn't necessarily an active user. ATVI made no comment on whether WoW MAUs were up or down. Because they made no comment I'd say they are down. ATVI puts out whatever positive #s they can. They don't hide positive news. This has been a consistent pattern of behaviour with ATVI since Blizzard and Activision merged to form ATVI. That's why we no longer get WoW subscriber #s. They are bad news.
So when you mash up all this info and compare it with the fact that Blizzard remained steady at 32 Million MAUs this quarter it makes the youtuber's claim that Overwatch MAU's are declining sharply hard to believe. It wouldn't be the first time a 1-man-show youtube guy who jams together a video in a few hours at most .. had incomplete research. He is entertaining though.. I'll give him that. The other part of his headline about the ATVI user base in steep decline is correct.
From ATVI official report:
Blizzard had 32 million MAUsC. Hearthstone MAUsC grew quarter-over-quarter following the release of the Rise of Shadows™ expansion and The Dalaran Heist single-player Adventure. Overwatch MAUsC were relatively stable quarter-over-quarter, with engagement increasing following the release of the Workshop. Subscribers in World of Warcraft® increased since mid-May, following the release date announcement and beta for World of WarcraftClassic and the Rise of Azshara™ content update.
So, if everything increased how does it remain the same? Although it's all pretty vague "Overwatch MAUs were relatively stable with engagement increasing" and "subscribers in WoW increased".
From those 2 I think that "relatively stable" is the one hiding the drop.
On August 10 2019 19:57 Manit0u wrote: WoW MAUs increased due to Classic and new content. Hearthstone MAUs increased due to new expansion.
no, the presentation slide states WoW's subscriber base increased. One can renew their monthly WoW account and remain an active WoW user without paying a subscription fee. Blizzard didn't say whether or not WoW MAU's went up or down.
A token sub earns Blizzard more money then a regular sub (20 euro's for a token used for 30 days of gametime vs 13 euro's for a sub for 30 days)
A person might not be paying their sub themselves, but someone else is still paying real money in their stead.
And that person isn't necessarily an active user. ATVI made no comment on whether WoW MAUs were up or down. Because they made no comment I'd say they are down. ATVI puts out whatever positive #s they can. They don't hide positive news. This has been a consistent pattern of behaviour with ATVI since Blizzard and Activision merged to form ATVI. That's why we no longer get WoW subscriber #s. They are bad news.
So when you mash up all this info and compare it with the fact that Blizzard remained steady at 32 Million MAUs this quarter it makes the youtuber's claim that Overwatch MAU's are declining sharply hard to believe. It wouldn't be the first time a 1-man-show youtube guy who jams together a video in a few hours at most .. had incomplete research. He is entertaining though.. I'll give him that. The other part of his headline about the ATVI user base in steep decline is correct.
Blizzard had 32 million MAUsC. Hearthstone MAUsC grew quarter-over-quarter following the release of the Rise of Shadows™ expansion and The Dalaran Heist single-player Adventure. Overwatch MAUsC were relatively stable quarter-over-quarter, with engagement increasing following the release of the Workshop. Subscribers in World of Warcraft® increased since mid-May, following the release date announcement and beta for World of WarcraftClassic and the Rise of Azshara™ content update.
So, if everything increased how does it remain the same? Although it's all pretty vague "Overwatch MAUs were relatively stable with engagement increasing" and "subscribers in WoW increased".
From those 2 I think that "relatively stable" is the one hiding the drop.
WoW's MAU's can drop while subs increase because of the upcoming release of Classic which would account for the lack of Active User (not interested in logging into BFA). That or SC2 plummeting further since its not mentioned otherwise?
I think it's rather safe to assume that HotS, D3 and SC2 are dead games now. Activision will probably end support for Anthem soon too. In general ATVI franchises are dying and they'll need to pull off something spectacular to get back on track.
EPT![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/tL9g8LE.jpg)
