Electronic Arts has caved to Belgium’s loot box ruling, and will now remove gambling mechanics from FIFA 19. EA initially pledged to fight Belgium on this, but have now surrendered.
Their statement is quite something, full of weaseling and insincerity. Y’know, typical EA, who have now joined Activision, Valve, Square Enix and more.
EA’s statement: https://www.ea.com/en-ca/news/fifa-points-belgium
#EA #LootBoxes #PS4 #PC #XboxOne #Belgium
EA in moral terms represents capitalism from lowest level of cesspool one could find.
Do I see a drop of share value? I SEE A DROP OF SHARE VALUE!
Belgium: This is illegal
Actiblizzard: OK
Valve: OK
EA: No it’s not
…
Belgium: Actually, it is
EA: No, we don’t agree
Belgium: You’re breaking the law
EA: That’s like, your interpretation, man
…
EA: Ok, we don’t agree about your so called laws, but we’ll stop doing the thing.
Belgium: Good
EA: In a week or so.
Belgium: Wha-
EA: Also we’ll be putting out a statement saying you’re wrong and that you’re responsible for inconveniencing our customers.
Belgium: Bu-
EA: Also this monetization feature that we have implemented in the game and are now unwillingly locking down will not affect our economic results at all.
Everyone: But why did you even add it in the fi-
EA: pLaYeR cHoIcE
This must be the first time us Belgians ever won a battle without aid, what a day to be alive!
The Microtransaction War, Battle of Belgium (2018-2019), Belgian Victory. Not a major victory, as EA managed to retreat before major damage to their forces was done. Time will tell if this retreat will result in a domino effect.
EA took on Belgium and lost
Now if only this was across the whole world, then we could crush EA like the cockroaches they are. But for now:
*Laughs histerically as EA loses another battle*
Hopefully all of EU will do the same soon. Unregulated gambling should not be allowed, especially not for children.
In celebration I’ll be having Belgian Waffles for breakfast tomorrow.
So no punishment for them then? Sure would be nice if I could break the law for ages, get caught out, announce I’m not going to follow the law anyway and continue breaking it then finally months later stop and not face any consequences. Guess it’s just corporations that get to do that though.
EA is still telling the government of Belgium, the de-facto capital of the European Union, that they disagree with their “interpretation” of what is “best interest of consumers” while conceding… wow, that’s brilliant. Keep it up EA dig that hole deeper. There are a lot of European Union public servants and diplomats reading this in the Belgium national newspapers, and they really don’t like being challenged by Silicon Valley business practices. This could fast track Belgium law into being an EU Law. Just look at the billion dollars in fines leveraged against Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook… this will be fun to keep watching.
“WE’RE GOING TO COURT WITH YOU BELGIUM YOU JUST WAIT”
“This isn’t litigation. If you don’t comply, you’re under arrest. You’re 1000% guilty.”
“………..We didn’t care about it anyway.”
What’s the word?
Shadenfreude?
Yes, yes it is. HAH!
Ladies and gentlemen… *We got ’em*
“Remove the lootboxes.”
“No.”
“I’m gonna get the belt.”
“Ok, I’ll remove them.”
Is EA going to fix the ingame economy as well and are they going to refund the microtransactions? Guess not.