Friday, July 13th 2018
Valve Disables CS:GO Lootboxes in Belgium & Netherlands
Following Valve's decision to disable trading in the Netherlands due to that country's legal statutes regarding gambling, the company is now taking other steps to comply with the country's Dutch Gaming Authority. Players in the Netherlands and Belgium "will be restricted from opening containers" following this week's patch, according to the patch notes. This will prevent players in those countries from even opening the lootboxes. As the "Miscellaneous" section of the patch notes reads:
Sources:
Counter Strike Blog, va PCGamesN
Of course, with restrictions for lootbox exploration for these players, Valve has to enable market trading again, as a way for these players to be able to sell their accumulated marketplace items, but especially the additional lootboxes they'll earn from playing - and not be able to open. It remains to be seen whether this will be the final solution for the lootbox problem in these countries, and if any others will follow suit. There's also the question of whether these players are even playing the same game as others around the world - they now have very limited access to some fundamental features of the game.
- Updated Steam and CS:GO account restrictions for users in Netherlands and Belgium:
- Steam Trading and Steam Market features are now re-enabled for Steam accounts in Netherlands.
- Customers in Netherlands and Belgium will be restricted from opening containers.
23 Comments on Valve Disables CS:GO Lootboxes in Belgium & Netherlands
I'm not saying I like loot boxes or cosmetic crap in games, but I'd rather have that "optional crap" in games than pay to win or $50 DLC's.
You say they're greedy and that might apply to some (like EA and Valve), but what about smaller developers? I'm really having mixed thoughts on this, but there has to be a nice middle road that allows game developers to make money over time on their games as well. There have been far too many great developers going titsup because it took them too long to get their next game to market.
I'm an old school gamer, i'd prefer to pay double a game at launch than buy stuff later, that might be useless, or completely pointless. I don't know i just think it's not a "healthy" idea to go on with microtransactions whether you're a huge or a tiny dev, it's just sounds almost like a scam to me.
Regards,
If the developer can run one game for years with boxes then I'm ok with it but not short turn arounds.
This whole argument of gaming and cost is one big farce. On one hand we have tons of indies and even solo devs proving the opposite and on the other we have idiots who believe everything the fat bloated publishers put in an interview or press release. Yes, overly bloated game franchises are costly to produce. And yes, they are the least interesting games you can buy. Its not a question of budgets, its a question of recognizing what gaming is about.
Good example: I'm playing this right now, you can get it on Steam for 23 EUR. Its more fun than a city builder like ANNO, I can tell right from the start it has more replay value and hours in it than many triple A alternatives. It proves all a decent game really needs is an interesting concept, a good idea, and a decent execution of it. That is not any more difficult today than it was in the 90's...
www.numantiangames.com/theyarebillions/
Ontopic about these lootboxes... I can only hope they will be consistent with this and put the same restriction on everything that falls under the same criteria. This real money RNG needs to die fast, it doesn't improve gaming or its community.
Usually what helps is making good quality games. Somehow it works. Even with support of fans, Divinity series is nice example.
Also some games (HOTS) used to sell cosmetics simply directly, no gambling.
But trading, and mostly knifes and overly expensive weapons on CSGO are cancer, i cant believe this:
Minimal Wear: $401 !! C'mon, with 300 you can get a real Glock 9mm somewhere else in craig list, and there is more:
C'mon, look at prices for something that just looks different cuz is just a weapon skin, does not improve stats for the weapon,
also knives are a bit expensive:
i cant believe there is people trowing away $1000 for a skin... and is happening right now maybe,
Regards
Regards,
Rocket league crates are all cosmetic items. You pay for the keys to unlock them, and we can trade them. They give us special keys during events, but you have to earn them, and they make the items untradable.