United Kingdom: DCMS opens consultation on loot boxes in video games

On 23 September 2020, the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) opened a public consultation on the influence of loot boxes in video games until 22 November 2020. The consultation seeks to understand the perspective of video game players, the way a loot box functions, the size of its market within the video game industry, the potential risks associated with the use of loot boxes, and the effectiveness of regulatory protections currently in place. Two groups are targeted in the inquiry: video game players who are at least 16 years old (or adults who supervise children who play) and gaming industry-related researchers, organizations or businesses. The first group is asked to share their own experiences, while the gaming industry-related individuals are expected to provide research-backed answers to specific questions. The questions delve into the harms and risks of loot boxes and whether they could be compared to similar offline situations like trading cards or gambling. Additionally, the DCMS seeks to understand the size of the loot box market and how often loot boxes are encountered in a video game or whether a certain type of video game more likely involves loot boxes. Other issues to be clarified are how often loot boxes are tradeable with other in-app purchases and what games or platforms let players trade their loot with items that could have been purchased with