The Senate inquiry on the booty boxes will report today.

After being delayed twice to allow more evidence, the federal bootleg survey will report its findings this afternoon, according to Kotaku Australia.

The Upper House investigation surprised local players earlier this year. Labor and the Coalition surprised the Greens by supporting a motion by Senator Steele-John, a member of the Greens, introduced in the Senate at the end of June. Liberal Senator James McGrath stood up and said that "the chests in video games raise issues that deserve to be closely examined," and said that Communications Minister Mitch Fifield had raised the issue of chests.

Labor then spread their own support, and a day later, the committee's investigation into microtransactions and surprise boxes was conducted. Public bids began shortly thereafter, accompanied by a profusion of opinions from academics and government officials.

The main answers so far in the investigation on the Senate Mailbox

The Senate's investigation of the surprise boxes is not expected to report until mid-September. Prior to their deliberations, members of industry, academia and the public made submissions to the group. Here is what they had to say.

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Representatives of the gaming industry argued that publishers, developers and platforms "generally do not allow object boxes, virtual objects or gaming points" to be exchanged, played or sold in other markets, and echoed the legislative vision released earlier this year. Boxes were not considered a form of play. The Australian Institute of Family Studies recommended the ban on "microtransactions of online gaming objects available in Australia", and the Attorney General and Queensland's Justice Minister said that "it can not be presumed" that the market will not prevent "more insidious uses of gambling-like game microtransactions" in the future.

"After all, game developers are increasingly dependent on the use of micro-transactions to monetize the game and fund both the initial development of the game and the development of additional downloadable content to keep the game up-to-date. and exciting, "said QLD's attorney. The submission of the general said.

The badistant secretary of Liquor Gaming & Racing NSW presented a compromise between these two approaches, suggesting that "the clbadification committee has the opportunity" to provide more information through the clbadification system, and indicated that They were "concerned" at the risk of normalization of the game through minors "from random objects such as loot boxes".

Victorian Minister of Gaming and Alcoholic Beverages Marlene Kairouz added that Victoria "strongly supports" federal action. "A stricter clbadification of video games with chests or similar objects would better recognize the potential damage that could result from the convergence of games and gambling and the normalization of gambling games that follows, "said the minister in her brief.

NSW and Victoria push for loot boxes to be ranked

A little less than a month before the Senate investigation on "microtransactions of gambling for objects based on luck" – looted boxes and other – reports, new reports to the commission of 39; survey were made public. Two of these submissions come from the Victorian Minister of Gaming and Alcoholic Beverages and the New South Wales Government Assistant Secretary of Beverage, Gaming and Racing. Both of these submissions encourage an update of the clbadification guidelines to recognize booty cases.

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The investigation was due to report by September 17, but was delayed one month after a public inquiry in which Dr. David Zendle presented the results of an online study on the subject. Impact and effects of the surprise boxes. The committee then delayed the publication of the report for an additional month, which made it possible to submit more submissions and filings, including additional information provided by the Dutch Gambling Authority.