The European Commission’s Digital Fairness Act is “game over” for the region’s games industry, claims a joint statement from the European Games Developer Federation and Video Games Europe.
The European Union has published a draft proposal for the DFA, calling for changes to in-game currencies to more clearly state their value, disclose loot box odds and give users ability to turn off loot boxes - with the sale of paid in-game items and currencies disabled by default for minors.
The EGDF and VGE slammed the move as “unworkable, unjustified and disproportionate”.
“The draft would cripple the competitiveness of Europe’s world-leading video games industry and leave millions of European players with fewer games and less choice,” read a joint statement.
The organisations said these principles would make games unplayable. The organisations said their own proposals had not been considered by the Commission.
“The proposed prohibition of pay-to-win and pay-to-progress mechanisms as written is fundamentally flawed, lacks clear definitions and would create huge confusion for players and developers alike.
“In practice, the proposed prohibition could cover almost any purchase in a game. The same lack of clarity applies to provisions imposing other design restrictions. Under these proposals, no developer could be sure whether their game breaks the DFA’s rules, which, in the context of fines of up to 6% of global turnover, is not acceptable.”
The EGDF and VGE claimed that the industry has shown that self and co-regulation can work. They cited the PEGI age rating system, which now also rates in-game purchases and paid random items.
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