Operation Sports Forums - View Single Post - Ultimate Team now illegal in Belgium and Netherlands

CM Hooe · 04-30-2018, 01:51 AM

Honestly I think anyone calling for the death of MUT falling out from this should probably temper their expectations a bit.

I think the most likely thing that will happen in a post-lootbox work is that we will see all these lootbox games - MUT included - get morphed into things which meet the letter of the law but still achieve the same goal of monetizing the game beyond the original point of sale.

For example (and this is probably a terrible half-baked), maybe MUT Solos gets morphed into a sort of conquest mode where the user starts with a base team and has to defeat other teams captained by some high-rated player to unlock that player and related cards. The micro transactions could be morphed from buying random cards to buying new solo challenges, i.e. a pay-to-play model with no randomness whatsoever. You'd buy a token to face off against Michael Vick's team instead of hoping to pull him from a pack.

Again, that's probably a terrible idea since I just thought it up in 30 seconds, but my point is I don't see microtransaction-driven gameplay modes such as MUT disappearing just because one possible gameplay mechanic to drive these modes - loot boxes - gets ruled illegal. There are many ways to make money from a video game.

04-30-2018, 01:51 AM	#16
CM Hooe Dead! OVR: 45 Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Culver City, CA Posts: 20,955	Re: Ultimate Team now illegal in Belgium and Netherlands Honestly I think anyone calling for the death of MUT falling out from this should probably temper their expectations a bit. I think the most likely thing that will happen in a post-lootbox work is that we will see all these lootbox games - MUT included - get morphed into things which meet the letter of the law but still achieve the same goal of monetizing the game beyond the original point of sale. For example (and this is probably a terrible half-baked), maybe MUT Solos gets morphed into a sort of conquest mode where the user starts with a base team and has to defeat other teams captained by some high-rated player to unlock that player and related cards. The micro transactions could be morphed from buying random cards to buying new solo challenges, i.e. a pay-to-play model with no randomness whatsoever. You'd buy a token to face off against Michael Vick's team instead of hoping to pull him from a pack. Again, that's probably a terrible idea since I just thought it up in 30 seconds, but my point is I don't see microtransaction-driven gameplay modes such as MUT disappearing just because one possible gameplay mechanic to drive these modes - loot boxes - gets ruled illegal. There are many ways to make money from a video game.