Most Companies Fail on Required Lootbox Ad Disclosures, Only The Elder Scrolls Online Always Disclosed
A new study showed that most game ads on social media platforms failed to properly disclose the presence of in-game purchases and lootboxes under UK and EU regulations.
The study (via GamesIndustry.biz) was done by researcher Leon Xiao, who specializes in the topic of lootboxes, using ads on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger, as well as TikTok. Using a list of games he knew had in-game purchases and lootboxes, he found 188 ads for 63 games displayed on those platforms.
The ads across Meta’s platforms only showed proper disclosure 11% of the time when it involved in-game purchases and only 7% compliance when it was for a game containing lootboxes. There was only one game out of the full list that fully complied with disclosures for in-game purchases and lootboxes: The Elder Scrolls Online.
Over on TikTok, it was similar. Liao’s study involved finding 100 ads for games that have lootboxes and 130 ads related to games with in-game purchases. Of these, only 7% complied with the lootbox disclosure and only nine were properly disclosing they had in-game purchases. This was 6.7%, so for each category, there was about a 7% compliance rate.
Among the TikTok ads, every ad studied that was in proper compliance came from Electronic Arts, but Liao notes that most of EA’s disclosures came in tiny text that was hard to read. Still, it was at least present. Technically.
The discussion around lootboxes and cash shops has been going on for a long time, and no one is expecting it to stop now, especially with so many live service and free to play games. Yet, regulations exist for a reason, and if compliance is nonexistent, or technically but not practically present, this could present issues. Yet, the other side of these rules is
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