Activision Blizzard fined by PEGI over Diablo Immortal loot boxes

Activision Blizzard has been fined €5,000 for failing to notify the European ratings board PEGI about the addition of loot boxes in Diablo Immortal.

The details:

• PEGI's Enforcement Committee recently updated its website's list of complaints and enforcement cases, revealing that publishers Activision and Plaion were fined this year for failing to notify the rating board of the existence of loot box systems in Diablo Immortal and Hunt: Showdown Bounty Hunter Limited Edition, respectively.
• Failure to disclose the inclusion of paid loot boxes is a violation of PEGI's Code of Conduct, but the main repercussion is a €5,000 fine for each company, which is pocket change to both given Plaion's worth in the tens of millions and Activision Blizzard's worth in the tens of billions. Both publishers were also forced to change their online store listings and marketing materials to include warnings about in-game gacha-style systems.
• Loot boxes have received widespread criticism from not only players but also regulatory bodies around the world, with countries such as Belgium and Austria ruling that the controversial system violates gambling laws in their respective countries. Recently, Nintendo was sued by a young boy and his father over the now-removed loot box system in Mario Kart Tour, claiming that it is predatory to children. Due to the stricter laws, many developers are now instead using rotating in-game stores similar to Fortnite to keep players coming back and spending money on microtransactions.

More Activision Blizzard news:

• Activision has sent cease-and-desist letters to the teams behind two of the most popular Call of Duty fan projects. The first, SM2, was intended to be the "ultimate" COD title, while the second was a set of custom clients that allowed fans to play older COD games much more securely. The reasoning behind the decision to take action is currently unknown, as the projects have been around for several years with little concern from Activision.
• Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard has been approved by China's State Administration for Market Regulation. The decision comes just a few weeks after the European Commission approved the deal and a month after the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) blocked it.