Video game developer Valve Corporation announced yesterday that it’s decided to disable item trading for Dutch gamers of its Counter Strike: Worldwide Offensive and Dota 2 games.
The announcement came soon after the Netherlands Gaming Authority, Kansspelautoriteit, published a statement stating that it would begin conducting previously announced checks whether specific game developers have corrected their games in a way that doesn’t violate the nation ’s gaming legislation.
The alterations required were mainly linked to the so-called loot boxes that have been making the headlines because last fall’s launch of EA’s Star Wars Battlefront II movie game. Broadly , loot boxes are in-game purchasable items which, in turn, contain different products that can either be of fantastic use to some participant or of little worth. The arbitrary choice of items within an loot boxes and that these can be purchased and moved have unleashed a huge debate, with opponents arguing that the boxes comprised a form of gaming.
Kansspelautoriteit carried out a research into the topic out of November 2017 through April 2018 and published a report to present its findings. The regulator reviewed ten games that were offered to Dutch players and featured loot boxes, and said that four of them were violating Dutch gaming regulations.
Publishers of the four games were not specifically named, but since it can be viewed, Valve was one of them. The gaming regulator informed developers that they ought to make certain adjustments to their own games to bring them in accordance with regulations until today, June 20, or face punitive measures.
Valve’s Response
In a Tuesday message to its own clients, Valve said it has been delivered two letters from Kansspelautoriteit in May in relation to its own Counter Strike: International Offensive and Dota 2 games. Both letters said the loot boxes featured in those violated the Dutch Betting and Gaming Act.
The letters went on that if Valve didn’t create the required alterations by June 20, it would face prosecution in the Netherlands. The game developer argued that it didn’t obtain any additional information in relation to the adjustments that had to be produced and the explanation offered in Kansspelautoriteit’s report on loot boxes these breach the legislation if the goods in them were transferable and didn’t violate the exact same law if the goods were not transferable was a “rather simplistic statement”. It also pointed out that it disagreed with Kansspelautoriteit’s findings.
The game developer said in its message out of yesterday that the only practical solution for now was to disable transfers and trading of items for Dutch gamers of its own Counter Strike: International Offensive and Dota 2 games. Valve further noted that it would participate with the gaming regulator to learn more clarity on the matter and hopefully locate a less inconvenient solution.
