European consumer associations attack in-game currencies

If you've ever played a free-to-play game, you'll be familiar with the virtual currencies that give you access to certain items, upgrades and so on. Today, it's these in-game currencies and publishers that are under fire. Some twenty European consumer associations are attacking the mechanism whereby these intermediate currencies are bought with real money. We take a look at the complaint lodged in Brussels.

European consumer associations denounce F2P gaming practices

It took some time for consumer associations to realise that microtransactions could represent an ethical problem for gamers. However, it is not pay-to-play games that adopt these practices, nor the abusive (even misleading) marketing of gachas that are being targeted, but free-to-play games offering the purchase of in-game currencies with real money.

According to the French consumer association UFC-Que Choisir, this mechanism serves to "make players forget that the money they are spending is real". What's more, "pack" type formulas do not allow players to really know the price of their purchase.

Add to this the fact that the prices of in-game items are calculated in such a way as to make players spend more money than they need to, and the European Commission and the European consumer protection authorities have been called in. The associations' objective: to force publishers to display the price in foreign currency of items offered in virtual currency and to ensure price transparency.

7 publishers targeted by the European associations' complaint

For the time being, the European consumer associations are targeting 7 publishers offering F2P games, namely Activision Blizzard (Diablo IV), Electronic Arts (EA Sports FC 24), Epic Games (Fortnite), Mojang Studio (Minecraft), Roblox, Supercell (Clash of Clans) and Ubisoft (Rainbox Six Siege).

Of course, it is mainly mobile games that are being targeted, with in-game currency being used in 81% of them, compared with 42% of PC games. For the time being, we do not know what the reaction of the European Commission and the relevant authorities will be, or whether in-game currencies will eventually be banned altogether.