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This will obviously not affect that children's games
Josh Hawley, the young senator from Missouri and currently the youngest member of the Senate, has made a name for himself by attacking Silicon Valley tech giants. He stumbled against Facebook. He wants to make it more difficult for websites to track users and collect their data. He thinks that Instagram and Twitter are parasites that should disappear.
Hawley does not really like payoffs and microtransactions paying to win in video games, and yesterday he introduced a bill that would effectively ban them from all video games distributed in the United States. Hawley says the bill is meant to protect minors, but if you look at the wording of it, it's pretty obvious that everything goes from "E for everyone" to "M for adults" will fall under its restrictions.
The bill targets two types of games. The first type are games for a general audience. This covers all titles for which the publisher or distributor has a constructive knowledge of the fact that some users are under 18 years of age. The second are minor games, which the bill broadly defines as follows:
"… an interactive digital entertainment product with a target audience of people under the age of 18, as evidenced by
(A) the subject of the product;
(B) the visual content of the product;
(C) the music or audio content of the product;
(D) the use of animated characters or attractive activities for children under 18;
(E) the age of the characters or models of the product;
(F) the presence in the product of
(i) celebrities under the age of 18; or
(ii) celebrities who use people under the age of 18;
(G) the language used in the product;
(H) the content of the materials used for advertising the product and the platforms on which these materials appear;
(I) the content of any advertising material appearing in the product;
(J) other reliable empirical evidence regarding:
i) the composition of the product audience; or
(ii) the public of the product, as provided by the publisher or distributor of the product; or
(K) other evidence that the product is intended for persons under 18 years of age. "
Any game that meets this broad definition and, frankly, all-encompassing, would be prohibited to include paid loot boxes and microtransactions to win if their product reaches more than 1,000 users per year. The payment mechanisms for winning defined in the bill include the payment to have the upper hand over other players, the payment to unlock something that you could win by playing, or the payment to ease your progress in the game. does not include difficulty levels, added content and cosmetic items. However, if the latter object is acquired through a box surprise and is considered a "product feature", it will be prohibited. Publishers would also be prohibited from adding these mechanisms after launching a game.
You can read the bill for yourself here. He currently has two co-sponsors in Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut. Mr. Blumenthal is no stranger to the video game industry. Prior to being elected to the Senate, Blumenthal filed an amicus brief at the Supreme Court in the Brown vs. Case. EMA.
We do not know how far this bill will go. He enjoys bipartisan support and I imagine that many people who are reading it right now are waving their fists at the thought that intrusive surprise boxes and payment mechanisms to win might soon be part of to Americans. In an interview with Jason Schrier of Kotaku, Hawley said that he thought that video game companies were worried and that people would let go of the bill once they would realize the operation of these systems.
I have contacted ESA for it to think about the bill now that we know what it contains. Here's the answer from CEO Stanley Pierre-Louis:
"This legislation is flawed and fraught with inaccuracies. This does not reflect how video games work or how our industry strives to provide innovative and compelling entertainment experiences to our audience. The impact of this bill would be significant and ultimately have a negative impact on the players' experience, not to mention the more than 220,000 Americans employed by the video game industry. We encourage the co-sponsors of the bill to work with us to raise awareness of the tools and information in place that allow video game control and spending to stay in the hands of parents rather than the government. "
For now, it is only the beginning of the process. Maybe the bill never goes out of the Senate. Maybe he's dying in the House. Maybe it's signed before the end of the year and we must embrace home and Shadowverse Goodbye. Whatever it is, something must change with the industry. Because even if Congress does not end up banning looters – legislation has already failed – the fact that the legislator is debating it is certain that publishers have failed to self-regulate in this area. .
Senator Hawley to Introduce Legislation Banning Game Handling Functions for Children [hawley.sennate.gov]
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