ESRB says they’ll start to label games with ‘in-game purchase’ labels

ESRB has issued a new statement today announcing that going forward, they will start to add a ‘In-Game Purchases’ Label to all games that contain in-game items.

ESRB said in a new a statement that any game that as items which can be purchased from an in-game store will get the ‘In-Game Purchases’ label, which includes loot boxes or season passes. ESRB says that ‘money is money’ and parents should be aware if there is any type of additional purchases that games have.

“I’m sure you’re all asking why aren’t we doing something more specific to loot boxes,” she said. “We’ve done a lot of research over the past several weeks and months, particularly among parents. What we’ve learned is that a large majority of parents don’t know what a loot box is. Even those who claim they do, don’t really understand what a loot box is. So it’s very important for us to not harp on loot boxes per se, to make sure that we’re capturing loot boxes, but also other in-game transactions.”

SOURCE: ESRB / Kotaku