Chat functions, loot boxes and purchase functions are explicitly on the USK’s agenda for the further development of its guiding criteria. Is the rating of EA SPORTS FC & Co. about to be tightened again?
The fact that the Entertainment Software Self-Regulation Body (USK) refers to “loot boxes” three times in its press release on Thursday is quite remarkable. The term has not yet appeared in the warnings on video game packaging. When the USK rated EA SPORTS FC 24 from the age of 12 instead of 0, it referred to “in-game purchases and random objects” or “increased pressure to act” in its explanation. However, future game covers could refer to “loot boxes”.
At its meeting on Wednesday, the USK Advisory Board “evaluated the current guiding criteria for the legal assessment of digital games for the protection of minors and decided on their further development”. New findings from “adjudication practice” – as the USK calls the sum of its assessment and decision-making procedures – are to be integrated. Explicitly affected by this are “risks from chat functions, loot boxes and purchase functions as well as the assessment of the appropriateness of the protective measures provided.”
New testing rules have a clear impact
The findings on further development are the result of the USK’s new testing rules, which have been in force since January 2023. These adjustments are in turn the result of a reform of the Youth Protection Act in May 2021 – and are already having a significant impact: Around 30 percent of video games with online functions tested since then are said to have received a higher age rating due to the risks of use.
“Since the amendment of the Youth Protection Act, risks such as loot boxes, chat functions or mechanisms to promote excessive media use have been included in the legal age rating procedure,” says USK Managing Director Elisabeth Secker. Meanwhile, Advisory Board Chairman Heico Michael Engelhardt outlines the future: “The pioneering work regarding possible suspected effects, which was based on the findings of the independent youth protection experts at the USK, will now be increasingly incorporated into the USK’s guiding criteria. “
In plain language: What has been noticed in the recent past is to be officially implemented. The next meeting of the USK Advisory Board will take place in December, when the updated criteria will be adopted. The change would therefore come too late to issue a loot box warning on the packaging of FC 25. The situation could be different for FC 26, although the inclusion of the term does not guarantee a future cover notice
