The Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB), which oversees gaming ratings in North America has just announced a huge change that impacts all games and the future of the industry as a whole. Starting today games with “with in-game offers to purchase digital goods or premiums with real world currency” must be labeled with a new sticker that says “In-Game Purchases.”
This will now provide a warning to consumers about potentially expensive components of a game they are about to buy. The big thing with this is that it will inform parents.
“With the new In-Game Purchases interactive element coming to physical games, parents will know when a game contains offers for players to purchase additional content,” ESRB president Patricia Vance said in the press release that announced the new labels.
Besides just informing parents, this new policy is in response to many games that came out in 2017 in which mirco-transactions played a big part. The biggest example was Star Wars Battlefront II.
