A man is suing Sony and electronic arts after spending nearly GBP 10,000 on FIFA in-game ‘loot boxes’.
The plaintiff, who has not been named but who is reportedly 26 years old and from the Austrian capital Vienna, claims that the random nature of the loot boxes, where players never know what they are going to get, is the same as gambling.
This, he claims via his lawyer Sebastian Furtmueller, means that the latest edition of the popular football video game is in violation of Austria’s strict gambling monopoly rules.
Furtmueller said: “For us, the system of loot boxes is clearly a game of chance, the mechanism is similar to slot machines.”
Electronic Arts have said that 10.3 million players started playing its new FIFA 23 version of the game in the first week of its release back in September, with Austrian media reporting that the 26-year-old’s lawsuit could lead to others coming forward too.
The Viennese man said: “The players in the loot boxes can be worth a lot or nothing at all.”
The loot boxes are bought using ‘FIFA coins’, which can be purchased with real-world money.
The plaintiff explained: “The packs cost between EUR 1 [GBP 0.86] and around EUR 25 [GBP 21.50]. The players can be worth a lot or they can be worth nothing. For example, I’ve never had a player worth over a million [coins] – the highest [in the game] is 15 million. And just because a player is good in reality doesn’t mean he’s worth it in the game too.”
And he added that the game was designed to encourage people to keep buying loot boxes, saying: “You have to be there all the time and buy packs all the time.
“There is a kind of hyperinflation in the game. If you have a super team in January, it may be that by the summer it will not be worth anything anymore.”
The 26-year-old has reportedly been playing FIFA games since he was 13 years old and has spent around EUR 11,000 (GBP 9,465) over the years on in-game content.
The gamer is not the first in Austria to file a lawsuit against the popular game’s creators, with an unnamed 17-year-old represented by lawyer Ulrich Salburg saying he spent EUR 400 (GBP 345) on in-game content and holds Sony responsible for damages.
There are said to be at least half a dozen cases against Sony over its FIFA loot box system that are ongoing in Austria.
In the UK and in the Netherlands, it was deemed that the loot boxes were not a form of gambling because there was always a reward.
But in Germany, courts reasoned that the loot boxes constituted gambling and that the game makers did not have a gambling licence in Germany. They were therefore ordered to refund players in Germany.
Sony argues that there is no requirement for players to purchase the loot boxes and that players can simply earn points by playing the game in order to unlock new players.
It remains to be seen what Austria’s courts will decide, but Furtmueller and his client are ready to take it all the way to the Supreme Court, saying: “If the Supreme Court decides it’s gambling, then it’s ‘Game over!'”
