Akin to gambling
China has just passed a new regulation pertaining to video games with microtransactions (specifically, loot boxes), and it’s a pretty interesting law that could eventually find its way overseas.
As translated by NeoGAF user chillybright, this law will begin enforcement on May 1, 2017, and will govern loot boxes, which are basically a form of gambling. Publishers will be required to give players information about them upfront, including draw, quantity, content, names, and properties. In other words, they need to tell you what percentage chance you have to actually get this blind box item.
Given my general distaste for the practice of blind boxes (thankfully many games are just cosmetic), this is a rather refreshing law. You can extrapolate the wording for yourself below.
Regulation [MCPRC via NeoGAF]
2.6 …Online game publishers shall promptly publicly announce information about the name, property, content, quantity, and draw/forge probability of all virtual items and services that can be drawn/forge on the official website or a dedicated draw probability webpage of the game. The information on draw probability shall be true and effective.
2.7 Online game publishers shall publicly announce the random draw results by customers on notable places of official website or in game, and keep record for government inquiry. The record must be kept for more than 90 days. When publishing the random draw results, some measures should be taken place to protect user privacy.
