China to require game makers to disclose loot box item odds in 2017

Loot boxes can be a pain for unlucky players and now China has an incoming regulation regarding the in-game items. Video game developers will be forced to reveal the odds of the item drops in 2017.

China is known to be strict with almost everything in their country. They even have the so-called Great Firewall of China that blocks Internet users inside from accessing most of the websites from around the world.

Now, Chinese regulators seem to be shifting focus to in-game loot boxes. NeoGAF user chillybright posted on their forums that China has a list of proposed rules for the loot boxes which would require game makers to publicly announce the draw results of players as well as the odds, PC Gamer reported.

The game makers will also need to publicly announce the quantity, probability, content, property and name of the loot boxes. Currently, loot boxes in different games do not show the odds of what players will get if they bought the box.

For instance, "Counter Strike: Global Offensive" has several loot boxes wherein players can get weapon skins with different rarity. However, the odds are not shown even if it is obvious that the rarer items have a smaller percentage of being drawn.

The said rules for the loot boxes will only be enforced for games in China, Kotaku reported. More countries or game developers could follow suit across the globe as it would actually be beneficial for players.

"Hearthstone" also has a kind of loot box in the form of the card packs. Players can get rare cards but some also grab duplicate cards which is another issue in the game.

China will reportedly enforce the regulations in May 2017. Developers like Blizzard and Valve still have no comments regarding the loot box odds disclosure regulation from the country.

Watch what loot boxes in "Overwatch" contain in the video below: