The political drumbeat around lootboxes is still going on, so I am retracting my recent bullishness on EA after its big drop because EA is most at risk in the sector.

In the US, the FTC is pledging to investigate. The focus of this reads to be more based on mobile apps targeted specifically to children, but it could still have effects for say EA with FIFA.

variety.com/20...38178/

In Australia, they just came with out with a report and a punt to recommend more investigation. That didn't stop one of the political parties from putting forth its own recommendations anyway, which may well have bipartisan support.

aph.gov.au/Pa...Report

Recommendation 2 1.34 The Australian Greens recommend that games which contain loot boxes that meet the psychological definition of gambling, and where virtual items can be monetised, be rated as R18+.

Recommendation 3 1.35 The Australian Greens recommend that games which contain loot boxes that meet the psychological definition of gambling but where virtual items cannot be monetised, be rated as MA15+.

Recommendation 4 1.36 The Australian Greens recommend that games containing loot boxes be required to clearly display 'Contains Simulated Gambling' in the video game content rating label.

Now this is all a long way from any legislation, either govt or self-regulation. And many of the games in the sector we follow here have already moved away from this, such as Fortnite. However EA is especially at risk with FIFA. Probably about half of EA's profits come from FUT in FIFA, which is lootboxes as a trading card game. Maybe nothing will happen with this. Maybe they'll have to make big changes to avoid a higher age rating or industry (self or govt) regulation and those changes may well affect monetization. Who knows. It's a risk though, and considering BFV also seems to be doing poorly, I definitely favor ATVI, TTWO or not purely games sector NVDA after its big drop, rather than EA.