Blizzard's upcoming open beta launch of Diablo Immortal later this week will be skipping the Netherlands and Belgium, thanks to regulations in those countries that consider games with randomized loot boxes to be illegal gambling.
"Diablo Immortal will not be available in Belgium or the Netherlands, and will not appear on Battle.net or the Belgian and Netherlands App or Google Play Stores," an Activision Blizzard spokesperson told Eurogamer over the weekend. "This is related to the current operating environment for games in those countries. Accordingly, pre-registrations for the game are not accessible in those markets."
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Two European Countries Won't Get Diablo Immortal Because of Loot Box Laws
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(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 02 2022, @01:25PM (2 children)
n/t
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 02 2022, @01:53PM
Exactly, more countries should enact such regulations.
The threat of "if you won't let us cause harm to you, then we're threatening you with not making the tool that causes said harm available in your area, you should reconsider" is a weird flex to say the least...
(Score: 4, Informative) by Thexalon on Thursday June 02 2022, @03:42PM
After all, the announcement of this game famously got Blizzard fans extremely excited and not at all wondering whether it was an out-of-season April Fool's joke [youtube.com].
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by FatPhil on Thursday June 02 2022, @01:55PM (14 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Freeman on Thursday June 02 2022, @02:14PM (13 children)
Argument: But, kiddo likes it!
Also, they can't be bothered to parent. Which is the bigger issue.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Common Joe on Thursday June 02 2022, @03:51PM (12 children)
It's tough for most adults to see loot boxes and micropayments and most things that they now implement in games are actually there to hook you and suck your money away. In a typical family household, it's two adults fighting against an army of people who have studied the entire lives to manipulate people into coughing up money. Kids are wildcards.
Can parents do more and should they do more? Yes, but I can't blame the parents entirely on this one.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by FatPhil on Thursday June 02 2022, @04:50PM (9 children)
The side door to your wallet that is children is almost as large as the front door, possibly larger.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday June 02 2022, @05:54PM
Thankfully, phone vendors are starting to see the light. With regards to blocking in-app purchases. Still, most people probably don't have those features turned on. The fact that there's a "my child bought x thing without my permission" help option, says a lot. That should be a weird random thing that happened. Not a working as designed, kind of thing.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Thursday June 02 2022, @09:06PM (7 children)
Eh, that's small fry. If you really wanted to milk children for money, you'd convince them to get a medical treatment. Not only are medical treatments extremely expensive, but people usually don't pay for them directly (it gets "subsidized" by insurance and/or government). Bonus points if the treatment requires a lifetime of medication afterward; imagine the decades of guaranteed income!
Of course, that's just a hypothesis. I have no idea how you would convince children to do that, nor how you would get past the parents who would likely not allow such a thing. Maybe some smarter entrepreneurs can figure it out.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday June 02 2022, @09:54PM (4 children)
Waaat? They're free. What backward shithole of a country do you live in?
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 3, Touché) by khallow on Thursday June 02 2022, @11:21PM (3 children)
Ah yes, the highly insightful "If I'm not paying for them, then they're free" argument.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Thexalon on Friday June 03 2022, @12:16AM (2 children)
They're nowhere near as expensive in any country other than the USA though. For example, the cost of a colonoscopy in the USA is between 5-20 times higher than other countries.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday June 03 2022, @02:37PM (1 child)
Perhaps, but would you want one done in Mexico? We're not talking about a, you get to choose the best place possible in Mexico, either.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Touché) by Thexalon on Friday June 03 2022, @09:20PM
I'm sure there are good Mexican doctors out there, but it's also 5-10 times more expensive in the USA compared to places like Canada, the UK, or many EU nations.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 03 2022, @01:43PM (1 child)
Perhaps by convincing them that they were born with the wrong gender?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 06 2022, @07:43AM
When someone else is telling a joke it is rude to shout out the punchline just before they get to it.
This message brought to you by the Committee to Improve Social Skills.
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 02 2022, @06:35PM (1 child)
100 times what my parent (pun intended) is saying!
Loot boxes and micropayments are a cross between Dark Patterns [wikipedia.org] and crack dealers. There is _nothing_ ethical, moral, or acceptable about them and we shouldn't pretend that there is.
If you think that you can fight against an entire industry that has meticulously honed this skill and practice to abuse you, then you must be one of that subset (!) of 2A folks that think having a pew-pew stick (or even a few) is going to help you 'fight the big evil gubment when they turn tyrannical'.
The deck is stacked against you.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday June 02 2022, @06:53PM
Why would I need to fight when there's no conflict? Perhaps the problem is that the sad people of these woebegotten countries need better leadership? My steel gauntlets will be lined with plenty of velvet, and my loot boxes will be the best.
(Score: 1) by echostorm on Thursday June 02 2022, @03:33PM (2 children)
Glad to see at least someone is standing up against this garbage,
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 02 2022, @05:55PM (1 child)
You don't have to "buy" it - Its FREE to play!
(I'm just not sure if you're being sarcastic or I am...)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 03 2022, @01:01AM
It's a running gag on the also free-to-play ARPG I'm playing now. Diablo 3 was total shit. Immortal will be shit. There are better ARPGs out there. There are better text-based MUDs out there!
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 02 2022, @03:46PM (2 children)
Blizzard made the shit list a long time ago. I refuse to even install their shitty launcher. I'd consider playing some of the games I purchased if it didn't support their ecosystem, but just logging on gives them a +1 user count.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Freeman on Thursday June 02 2022, @06:57PM
Diablo 3 and the awfulness of their auction house and the ensuing microtransactionification of their loot tables. Was when I realized that the corporation had been taken over by greedy overlords. I guess World of Warcraft permanently broke the company. Since, the likes of a MMO like WoW rakes in fist fulls of cash every month from the subscriptions, then you have all the microtransactions that go with it. Yes, MMOs have nearly always been that way. (No, they don't have to be, case in point, Guild Wars.) That doesn't mean you need to take all of the predatory practices in MMOs and insert them into otherwise good games. I can see a studio needing to keep the lights on and releasing DLCs, some cosmetic content, or just putting a "buy me coffee" button up. Creating games that are designed with elements that make actual gambling games illegal in most jurisdictions (or at least behind an age verification wall), should be illegal (or be regulated like gambling games, I.E. card everyone that looks like they aren't 40 yrs old).
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Friday June 03 2022, @09:34PM
I'm happy to keep playing the games I bought over a decade ago back when they were making good stuff, but that was back in an era where the graphics might not be as good but the games were fun to play, well-balanced, and came from an era before microtransactions and loot-boxes and other ways for the company to dip into your wallet again and again and again. And I also can't help but wonder if they're at some point going to reneg on their legal obligations for those games and break the BNet key system on purpose to try to force us old-schoolers into buying their remasters if we want to keep playing, as if pirates haven't already figured out how to work around those keys for single-player at least.
But yeah, the new stuff I'm not touching with a 10-foot pole, and I don't feel like I'm missing out by avoiding it.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 02 2022, @03:53PM (3 children)
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/do-you-guys-not-have-phones [knowyourmeme.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday June 02 2022, @06:42PM (2 children)
(Score: 3, Touché) by Freeman on Thursday June 02 2022, @07:04PM (1 child)
Yes, it was and they still don't get it.
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/21810-it-is-difficult-to-get-a-man-to-understand-something [goodreads.com]
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 05 2022, @01:20AM
They did get it. You can play Diablo Immortal on PC all you want.