As we know gambling has been around for hundreds, even thousands of years – now that our world is becoming more digital and reliant on computers, phones and other electronic advances we now have access to all types of betting and gambling websites and apps. With many new platforms and sources into the world of gambling from video game competitive game betting – which is reliant on the public to place bets on what team will take the win of that specific tournament, to having game publishers create a type of jackpot games where you would get a game item for opening crates or boxes with a randomized outcome.
Transitioning from games sold as CD format to now having to develop different styles to get your game played and brought by the public is something a publisher has to consider when it comes to a digital age – it’s no longer as easy to sell games depending on their genre. The top genre of video games as of today are Battle Royale’s; which has the player dropping in from the sky in a deathmatch to come out last alive. The majority of gaming developers incorporating gambling type where earning a box or pack from play time or purchasing them in the store for real money.
As it becomes harder for games to create profit and for the developers to roll out regular updates, they would have to introduce a kind of micro-transaction in return a rare or common cosmetic that can be used for a weapon or character model clothing.
Gambling has become somewhat of a bother when it comes to laws regarding the matter – with some countries putting forward regulations to help protect under-age gamers against the use of games that involve a gambling type system, especially third-party betting and gambling sites that allow you to bet skins or real-life money towards competitive games and betting against skins. With Valve, the creators of Counter-strike to facilitate the use of third-party sites by improving their platform ‘Steam’ from allowing players to access said skins to bet on third-party sites.
The one thing that gamers do need to watch out for is that they are playing on or working with reputable sites that are not rigged against them. Always ask other players or check out a site like CSGototem.com to make sure everything is legitimate before playing.
The Netherlands and Belgium have put forward some loot boxes being ruled as illegal that offer randomized rewards, as of now Belgium government have contacted developers or CS:GO, Overwatch and FIFA 18 to remove their loot boxes. There has been attempts that some states in the US to regulate the same laws, but nothing has been formally set as of yet. As the law against loot boxes are a grey area, and improving laws take some time making sure that the law works on all levels and does damage game developers and publishers profit, as that also does affect tax values for the government issuing the regulation.
As games are becoming more expensive to make, incorporating new and diverse ways to help fund your game, is now the way forward. With most, nearly every new game now introducing micro-transactions it’s the new way to keep your game funded for more content in the future.