

Kotaku has contacted Nintendo about the lawsuit.Ĭompanies like Epic and EA also face legal issues over loot boxes

It also claims that younger players are more vulnerable to these sorts of systems, which involve loot boxes and random rewards. The lawsuit further says the “loot box mechanism” Nintendo used “capitalized on and encouraged addictive behaviors” in gamers, similar to gambling or betting. In the suit, the plaintiffs refer to Mario Kart’s microtransactions as “immoral” and claims that tactics used to “deceive” players violate Washington State’s Consumer Protection Act and also California business law. The lawsuit further suggests that Nintendo purposely made it harder to make progress in the mobile game for players who didn’t spend money on items obtained through the pipes, suggesting the company used “ dark patterns” to trick players into spending more money on in-app purchases. The 22 Best Games For The Nintendo SwitchĪs reported by Axios on Monday, the lawsuit- originally filed in March but only appearing on the federal docket last week-calls for refunds for all minors in the United States who paid to open loot pipes. The 15 Best Games For Sony's PlayStation 5 While Nintendo removed these pipes last year, it’s still facing a possible class action lawsuit over the loot box-like items from a father who says his kid ended up spending $170+ on Mario Kart Tour pipes using a credit card connected to the game. When first released in 2019, Mario Kart Tour-Nintendo’s free-to-play mobile spin-off of its popular kart racer series-contained “Spotlight Pipes.” These basically acted as loot boxes, with undisclosed odds, that players could use real-world money to open in the hopes of receiving in-game upgrades and items.
