In an amusingly desperate move, 2K Games is asking its audience to fight for the right to gamble in videogames. NBA 2K19 joins Overwatch in disabling loot boxes for Belgium, and 2K wants to get stroppy about it.
So it is that they’ve asked their audience to petition on their behalf, because they don’t think laws should apply to them.
2K statement: https://www.2k.com/myteaminfo/be/
Wow… These companies get ever more pathetic and sad…
“Contact your government representative so you can give us more money” That’s what I heard and sounds beyond absurd. Even to the most mindless NBA2k fan this has to sound ridiculous
The most damning thing about that statement is how 2K state that the Belgium Gaming Commission are misinterpreting their own rules. It’s almost like they’re saying the BGC don’t actually understand the laws they’re responsible for putting into place and that the video game company knows more about gambling laws than the commission whose job it is is to regulate the industry.
Just curious, does this law affect mobile games? Like they don’t call it a “lootbox” but the gacha system in those games are by definition a “lootbox”.
Belgium is just a scratch on the Triple A’s hairy back, I don’t see any changes being made unless America start banning lootboxes.
Loot boxes are so bad they are making people think its better to cut stuff out of a game and sell directly because atleast you get what you want. Piss take
“The Belgian government interprets our cars not having seatbelts as dangerous but we hope we can convince them to see the error of their ways. Until then, please beg the government to allow our cars to come without seatbelts so you can have the choice to pay us extra to add them to your car. It’s driver choice and doesn’t effect the driving of the car!”
Its banned for a good reason end of story.
I really don’t think calling someone’s decision “interpretation of the law” is a really good diffusion of guilt.
Could you imagine some defendant in court pleading not guilty by looking the judge fucking dead in the eye and saying “if I decided to comply with YOUR interpretation of the law, I’d be guilty but there are many interpretations of the law that suggest I’m innocent and those ones are correct” and then sitting down with the smuggest look on their face?
I can, and the defendant is looking mighty similar to a loot box.
Hang on. Getting the Futurama “Laugh Harder” clip.
Time to ban lootboxes everywhere dear 2K
00:55 I think they are more like a proven murderer who is told he will go to jail for life and starts whining because he hasn’t kill all of the people yet and we should let him go.
Plottwist: They’re called “2K” because they want you to pay 2K for a single game.
2K: please call your local politician and tell them your opinion!
Belgians: (calls politician) Good job, local politician! Hold that one up!
I’ll sign a petition to allow you to pumpkin scream at people Jim.
I will never understand the people who defend corporations AS they are actively being screwed by said corporations. Do think they’ll get something out of it? Stockholm syndrome maybe? Is it just greed; they got something rare and don’t want to see it devalued? Or perhaps it’s just a really bad case of buyers remorse.
Going down in flames to defend your own past mistakes seems to be the flavor of the year…
Amazing how both the 2K and ActBlizz statements on this talk about “THEIR interpretation of the law”. Like the interpretation of a company based out of a different country entirely somehow has a more valid interpretation of the law than the organization that actually is meant to enforce said law. They’ve gotten way to used to things in the US, where corporations DO make the laws.
Now that’s just pathetic. I hope that Belgium lootbox ban goes worldwide.
As a word of advice to Belgian 2K fans, or to any gamer in Belgium full stop. DO contact your representatives, but do so to tell them the truth of how lootboxes and microtransactions are manipulative and exploitative. Get them to spread this ideology throughout the European parliaments to make these international gaming businesses play by EU rules and have some goddamn standards when it comes to monetization.
Also, this is a bald-faced public example of attempted lobbying. In any sane country, lobbyists would have molten gold poured down their throats as punishment for their greed. But they don’t. Because the whole fucking world’s gone mad, and some governments would probably sooner pour molten lead down a refugee child’s throat than bring big money to account.