If you play FIFA, Free Fire, PUBG, Clash Of Clans, among other games, you must have seen this system: the sale of boxes, packages, chests, etc., which periodically provide random items to the players of a given game.
These 'loot boxes', which can be purchased with in-game coins (which can be very laborious), or through real money (in so-called microtransactions), represent the main source of income for producers, especially in free games, already that there is no initial cost of purchasing the software.
In some games, when owning a certain item, which is usually rare and can only be acquired through this random system, a player can have a great competitive advantage against other players - which makes the purchase of the item end up becoming an obsession for some people.
And to get this item more quickly, it is very common for the player to end up spending real money. This is what many call 'pay to win'.
In addition to items that bring advantages to the game, microtransactions can also offer aesthetic items, such as 'skins' and customizations. In the Fortnite game, for example, this season, the player will be able to purchase, with game or real money, a package that will include a Neymar player skin.
It turns out that this system, which earns billions of dollars annually, may be banned in Brazil (as it is in some countries).
The National Association of the Centers for the Defense of the Rights of Children and Adolescents (ANCED) initiated an action against several companies in Brazil, including Activision, EA and Garena, with an indemnity request of R$ 19.5 billion (US$3.55bn).
According to ANCED, the system of ‘loot boxes’ should be banned as it resembles games of chance (such as those in casinos), which are illegal here.
Fabio Juliate Lopes
Criminal lawyer. Postgraduate student in Economic Criminal Law at the Institute of Economic and European Criminal Law (IDPEE) of the Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra.
