As a result of a complaint that was filed in relation to Star Stable, a free-to-play horse game mainly marketed toward children, the European Union has penned a long list of guidelines that have urged publishers to make in-game monetization more transparent and straightforward.
Europe’s CPC (Consumer Protection Cooperation Network) confirmed that they’re calling for changes in the way games present their currency.
This set of key principles targets in-game currency, demanding action be taken to make the price of items more clear. Any company that doesn’t do this for games sold in the EU is subject to litigation moving forward.
While this isn’t expected to be an overnight change for every game, the CPC is pushing for it. Star Stable, the main game that brought up this issue and caused reform, has a month to reply to the EU’s plea and show they’re committed to remedying them. There’s no telling which publisher will be up next.
EU makes legislative change against microtransactions
In essence, these principles are meant to make it so in-game currency is treated the same as legal tender from a legislative standpoint. In other words, there’s no space for exemptions.
So, if there’s an item in a store for any game moving forward, it can’t just have the price listed for in-game currency. It’s now mandatory for it to have the price listed in Euros as well.
Here’s a list of the standards companies will now be held to, as well as a small diagram of what they expect to be present for in-game storefronts.
The EU isn’t outlawing in-game currency entirely. They are, however, forcing the real price of the item to be displayed next to them.
This even extends to items that can be acquired for free with in-game currency. Even if there’s a free way to unlock it or an alternative way to earn something, if players can buy it with real money, it has to have a price on it.
For example, Marvel Rivals has Units (blue free tokens) and Lattice (gold paid tokens). Even though skins can be earned entirely with the free blue currency, the real-world currency price of every single one will have to be named.
So, for these bundles, you’d see the cost in Euros next to the actual currency to indicate how much it’d cost. The price of these bundles without the discount would also have to be listed alongside the amount it actually costs with it applied.
There are, however, still ways to skirt around this. This legislation doesn’t cover Battle Pass skins that have to be earned with in-game currency and grinding since those can’t be paid for.
There are other regulations in place, though. For instance, it bars games from requiring players to purchase several different currencies to buy an item, claiming that makes it difficult to tell what the actual price of an item is.
This next one is huge, however. The third principle bars the practice of gating currency behind certain amounts that have to be purchased. It’s common practice for games to offer currency in packages that leave the consumer just short of being able to buy what they want.
For instance, here’s the way League of Legends‘ digital currency, RP, is priced:
When compared to the actual storefront, there are some stark differences in the price of items compared to what these currency packages give players.
If someone wanted to buy the Battle Pass, they’d be forced to buy either the 2800 RP pack for $22, or to buy the 1380 RP pack and the 575 pack for $15.98. But, because the player gets “more value” from 2800, they’re funneled directly toward buying more currency.
To be clear, this isn’t a League of Legends exclusive practice. Pretty much every game that uses in-game currency works this way, and stores were built this way to incentivize players to spend more money. These laws aim to put a stop to that practice.
“Traders should not engage in practices distorting the economic behavior of consumers by designing video games in ways that force the consumers to spend more real-world money on in-game currency than they need to buy the selected in-game content or services,” the list of principles explains.
On top of this, it also forces stores to allow refunds for, at the bare minimum, 14 days after the purchase of in-game currency. Publishers can still withhold their right to make the in-game item itself non-refundable, but the actual in-game tokens used to purchase it are fair game.
The list of principles has some other action points in it, and you can read it in its entirety here. For now, though, these eight principles will immediately affect every developer selling microtransactions in their games and force them to make some big changes to the way their storefronts are laid out.
And, though this will affect the gaming industry as a whole within the country, the reason for this change is mainly to protect children and keep them from being taken advantage of.
“Children spend a lot of time online, gaming and interacting on social media. This makes them an attractive target for traders and advertisers,” Michael McGrath, Commissioner for Consumer Protection explained.
“It is crucial to ensure a safe online environment for consumers, particularly children, so they can enjoy gaming without facing unfair practices. I support the efforts of the CPC network and look forward to working with the gaming industry to protect consumers and children.”
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