European video game age-rating organisation PEGI has said it's 'very aware' NBA 2K20 may get 'too close for comfort' to teaching players gambling after it received a complaint about a controversial casino trailer.
Earlier this week, publisher 2K released a trailer for NBA 2K20 on YouTube that highlighted casino-style elements in the game, such as a slot machine mini-game and a wheel of fortune mini-game.
At the end of the day the GM’s are just playing a big game of Wheel of Fortune. Risk is the main player in these because there is no guarantee that any of these dates will prove to be a benefit. The major point of contention in NBA 2K20 is that it also added spin the wheel and ball drop mini-games in MyTeam. These, along with “casino-like” areas in The Neighborhood, were seen as a.
The trailer, which also highlighted the game's loot box systems, was roundly criticised. 2K later unlisted the video, which has received 16,000 dislikes. Comments include: 'This looks and sounds like I'm watching a casino ad,' and, 'This is legit gambling. They aren't even trying to hide it anymore.'
Adding fuel to the fire, critics pointed out these casino-style games are included in a PEGI 3 video game targeted at children as well as adults.
Yesterday, an email from PEGI addressing a complaint about NBA 2K20's age-rating hit reddit. Eurogamer has verified this email is legitimate with PEGI.
In the email, PEGI said a video game will only carry the gambling descriptor if it includes mechanics that encourage or teach players how to gamble or bet - and NBA 2K20, it insists, does not do this.
However, PEGI said it's aware NBA 2K20 'may get too close for comfort for some people', and said the trailer sparked an internal discussion going on right now.
Here's the response in full:
'We have seen the announcement trailer of NBA 2K20 and noticed the controversy it has caused. We feel it is important to carefully explain when certain content is triggering the gambling descriptor in the PEGI system, but also to show when it does not at this moment.
'A video game gets the gambling content descriptor if it contains moving images that encourage and/or teach the use of games of chance that are played/carried out as a traditional means of gambling.
'We use a help text to clarify this in more detail: This refers to types of betting or gambling for money that is normally played/carried out in casinos, gambling halls, racetracks. This does not cover games where betting or gambling is simply part of the general storyline. The game must actually teach the player how to gamble or bet and/or encourage the player to want to gamble or bet for money in real life.
'For example, this will include games that teach the player how to play card games that are usually played for money or how to play the odds in horse racing.
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'It is important to stress that the controversial imagery played a central role in the trailer, but it may not necessarily do so in the game, which has not yet been released.
'At this point in time, PEGI can only comment on the trailer that has been made publicly available.
'The trailer includes imagery that is generally known from casinos (wheel of fortune, slot machines). Using this sort of mechanic to select an item, or character, or action by chance is not the same as teaching how to gamble for money in a casino. These differences currently prevent us from applying the gambling descriptor. But we are very aware that it may get too close for comfort for some people, and that is part of an internal discussion that PEGI is having for the moment. The games industry is evolving constantly (and rapidly in recent years). As a rating organisation, we need to ensure that these developments are reflected in our classification criteria. We do not base our decisions on the content of a single trailer, but we will properly assess how the rating system (and the video games industry in general) should address these concerns.'
PEGI's statement here suggests the organisation will wait until it's seen the final game before making a judgment on NBA 2K20's rating, but it also suggests PEGI is having a deep discussion about its own criteria. If it decides NBA 2K20 does indeed trigger the gambling content descriptor, then the game may lose its PEGI 3 rating.
2K's trailer for NBA 2K20 has kicked up quite the stink, then, although these casino mechanics have been in previous entries in the series. Context is king - the now unlisted trailer puts loot boxes and casino games on a pedestal at a time of increased scrutiny about video games and gambling and loot boxes across the globe.
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A lot of people really hate lootboxes. This mechanic has players spending money to get a random assortment of digital items similar to packs of baseball cards. But this business model has drawn the ire of players who hate the idea of spending money without knowing what they’re going to get. And yet, someone must like these things because why else would publisher 2K Games make a trailer for its upcoming NBA 2K20 basketball sim that highlights just how much fun it is to get random items from lootboxes in a video game?
Earlier this week, 2K published a video that shows off many of the new features in NBA 2K20’s MyTeam. In this mode, players build dream teams by collecting cards. And you collect cards by opening up randomized card packs. This mode type first came to prominence in FIFA Ultimate Team from EA Sports. But this deck-building mode has proliferated throughout the entire sports genre. Today, it’s even in management-style sports sims like Out of the Park Baseball.
But while modes like MyTeam are all about getting those rare cards featuring legendary players, publishers like EA have focused on how this mode enables fans to “build their own teams.” 2K Games, however, is focused on something else: How much fun slot machines are!
As Twitter user BrianPickett pointed out in a tweet, the new trailer for NBA 2K20 almost seems like someone satirizing the idea of microtransactions. And yet, the publisher is absolutely serious.
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This NBA 2K My Team trailer is a grim nightmare of loot box stuff and almost seems like a parody at some points https://t.co/WJ4tsCAXXK
— Brian Pickett (@BrianPickett) August 28, 2019
The MyTeam trailer has very little actual gameplay in which someone is playing basketball. Instead, the video jumps from one way to earn digital items to another and another. Here’s each “surprise mechanic” that gets some attention in the video:
- Opening randomized card packs
- Jackpot prizes you can earn by spinning a wheel after winning matches in the three-on-three Triple Threat mode.
- Pachinko machines … really
- Slot machines … no, really!
- A Wheel of Fortune-style wheel.
- Something called “Huge reward cards!”
And it’s not just that the game includes all of these ways to get new cards or even that 2K is highlighting them in a trailer. It’s the brazen way that the publisher is presenting the lootbox mechanics as core to the appeal of the franchise that is so surprising.
I usually try to resist jumping all over games that have lootboxes. If you don’t like them, don’t play them. But to me, 2K almost seems like it wants to get caught. Like it wants a regulator to step in and stop it from behaving this way.
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Regulation could be coming. Congress has put lootboxes on its agenda, and the FTC held a workshop about the business model earlier this month.
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And maybe it’s overdue. Because when the MyTeam trailer ends with one of the actors screaming in ecstasy as he unlocks a top-tier Lebron James card, I found myself looking for the legal disclaimer. If 2K is going to market the experience of unlocking a Lebron James card, shouldn’t it have to say that this result isn’t typical. Or at least tell us the odds or the average amount of money a person would have to spend to get that experience?
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It doesn’t, though. The advertisement doesn’t have anything like that. And in 2019, that seems weird.
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