Games that include “paid random items” – a blanket phrase designed to refer to loot boxes, card packs, and other similar in-game purchases with a random element – will now be marked as such. European ratings board PEGI already includes a symbol for titles which feature microtransactions, but it will now specify whether this includes items with random chances attached. Sports games such as FIFA 20 with its card collecting Ultimate Team mode will include the additional text, for example.

American ratings board ESRB will also add additional information to game cases, once again focusing on “random items”. You can see how the new labels will look in both territories below:

ESRB 1
Image: ESRB
PEGI 1
Image: PEGI

This follows an enormous backlash to loot boxes across the globe, including some government intervention. In the Netherlands, the Dutch Gaming Authority deemed that loot boxes could be considered a form of gambling, and thus banned them from sale in 2018.

[source pegi.info, via esrb.org]