In an effort to help better inform gamers and parents about the content of new games, the ESRB game ratings body, has announced that it will begin labelling them with information about in-game purchases. That will involve everything from DLC and skins, to expansion content and loot boxes.
"You may have noticed that we’ve been a little quiet on the topic of in-game purchases and loot boxes, but we’ve been listening," the ESRB said in a statement. "In fact, we’ve absorbed every tweet, email, Facebook post and singing telegram sent our way, and we’ve been working to develop a sensible approach to let gamers and parents know when a game offers the option to purchase additional content."
"Starting soon ESRB will begin assigning a brand-new label to physical games: In-Game Purchases. This label, or as we call it interactive element, will appear on boxes (and where those games can be downloaded) for all games that offer the ability to purchase digital goods of premiums with real world currency."
Alongside this announcement, the ESRB also detailed how it was launching a brand new website called ParentingTools. It helps further inform parents about the content in the games their children are playing, as well as instructing them on how to leverage platform-specific parenting controls to limit access to certain games and content.
Do you guys think this will help curtail the implementation of loot boxes and similar, or at least help prevent kids from spending too much in games?
