European consumer protection authorities have announced a series of "coordinated actions" aimed at 10 video companies, accusing several of the biggest names in the industry--like Activision Blizzard and Ubisoft--of "dark patterns" that are designed to put minors and individuals at risk of gaming addiction.

If you've ever purchased in-game currency, then you're probably aware of how one of these tactics works. For example, Destiny 2's in-game currency, Silver, comes in bundles of 500, 1,000, and 1,500 units, but buying a fancy new skin for a set of armor ornaments costs between 600 and 1,500 Silver. That way, you're forced to purchase extra Silver that you don't need, and you can exchange any remaining Silver back for cash, creating what is essentially a one-way exchange rate conversion. Destiny 2 isn't an outlier in this space, as multiple big games like Fortnite and Call of Duty all have their own currencies, available through exploitative bundle deals. The key takeaway is that the setup of these bundles ensures that you'll always be short a few digital bucks on the one item you really want.

One of the few games that is changing its approach to in-game currency is Fortnite, as starting October 14, players can purchase the exact amount of V-Bucks they need. This change will also roll out to Rocket League and Fall Guys across Xbox, Nintendo, PC, Android, iPhone, and the Fortnite web Item Shop, but for now, it won't be supported on PlayStation.

The European-wide enforcement says that it's focused on practices that obscure real-world spending in video games, such as the use of premium in-game currencies, selling virtual currencies in set quantities that rarely align with item prices and thus force players to overspend, and insufficient parental control mechanisms.

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