China’s Ministry of Culture has passed new regulations specifically targeted at online games and the way those games handle chance-based microtransactions.
According to a translation by NeoGAF user Chillybright, parts of the new law require publishers to clearly disclose both potential item drops and the probabilities of getting each item for random loot boxes with chance-based drops.
While regulation like this offers more transparency for consumers, it’s worth noting that this legislation could potentially discourage players from purchasing loot boxes and impact the income publishers and developers generate from the sale of chance-based items.
The translated law states the following:
“Online game publishers shall promptly publicly announce information about the name, property, content, quantity, and draw/forge probability of all virtual items and services that can be drawn/forge on the official website or a dedicated draw probability webpage of the game. The information on draw probability shall be true and effective.”
“Online game publishers shall publicly announce the random draw results by customers on notable places of official website or in game, and keep record for government inquiry. The record must be kept for more than 90 days. When publishing the random draw results, some measures should be taken place to protect user privacy.”