A young gamer from California has filed a potential class action lawsuit against Nintendo over Mario Kart Tour’s “immoral” microtransactions in the company’s Mario Kart Tour mobile game.
According to Axios’ report, the young gamer has spent over $170 on Mario Kart Tour’s Spotlight Pipes, a kind of loot box that has undisclosed odds, on his father’s credit card. The lawsuit calls for refunds for all under aged players in the United States who paid to open loot pipes. The lawsuit says that Nintendo encourges players to pay real-life money to progress in game.
Loot boxes have been an issue forever and have gotten to an extent where some countries banned loot boxes altogether. South Korea has passed an amendment requiring game developers to disclose the probability of obtaining chance-based items in loot boxes. Companies must display the probabilities in games, ads, and official websites.
In 2018, the Belgian Gaming Commission ‘banned’ loot boxes by threatening legal action against gaming companies with games, including loot boxes that do not have gambling licenses. Last summer, Six political parties in the Netherlands united to remove loot boxes from video games published in the country. Loot boxes are not banned, but gaming companies have very heavy restrictions.
