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Australia’s federal government has toughened classifications for loot boxes and gambling content in video games, introducing compulsory advisories for loot boxes and mandating adult-only access to any simulation of gambling behaviour.
The Australian Classification Board (ACB) said on Wednesday (September 18) that the revised classification criteria for “gambling-like content” will apply to newly classified video game titles from September 22.
“These changes are in response to growing community concern for children and research findings that links [sic] gambling-like content in video games to problem gambling in real life, as well as psychological and emotional harm,” the ACB said in a statement.
The revised criteria also bring the gaming industry “in line with age-based restrictions in the real world”, it said in a separate fact sheet.
The changes will see a minimum “M” rating (“mature”; suitable for people 15 years and over), which is advisory only, applied to “computer games containing in-games purchases linked to elements of chance, including paid loot boxes”.
The rating will apply to all games with such purchases, whether with real money or in-game currencies.
An “R” rating that legally restricts the hire or sale of games to adults will apply to all games on computers, gaming consoles, cellphones and tablets “containing simulated gambling”.
The ACB’s fact sheet also notes that video games with interactive simulated gambling activities will be refused classification (banned) if rewards “can be redeemed for real-world currency or traded to other players in-game for real-world currency”.
However, the ACB said the M rating will not apply for loot boxes if there is no reward mechanism involving real-world currency, and that the R rating will not necessarily apply to games with “casino settings, imagery or themes” that do not allow engagement or interactivity with gambling behaviour.
Because of the vast number of video game and mobile app titles already classified under the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC) rating mechanism, which the ACB uses for almost all game classifications, the revised M and R criteria will apply only to newly submitted titles or old titles that are modified and require re-examination.
Such modifications include additions to or subtractions from loot box mechanisms and simulated gambling elements after a game has been released to the market.
The ACB also reserves the right to review, modify, or revoke an IARC classification and replace it with a lower or higher rating and/or modify its consumer advice.
However, an updated question-and-answer sheet published by the ACB indicates that there remain grey areas for classification officers on what constitutes interactivity, simulated gambling and game modifications that would trigger reclassification.
In the meantime, game distributors appear to have performed voluntary re-ratings of some products without submitting modified games to the ACB.
Leon Y. Xiao, a PhD fellow at the IT University of Copenhagen and a specialist on video game law and regulation, noted on his X/Twitter account on Tuesday that the Apple-hosted game Genshin Impact, for example, had an “M (15+)” rating added because of its loot box content.
The ACB’s National Classification Database shows no entry corresponding to this change.
Xiao co-wrote in an academic paper last month that games with loot boxes continue to sidestep gambling regulator scrutiny around the globe. The gaming platform Steam, in particular, has hosted games that break gambling laws in European territories, according to his research.
