Upon closer inspection: Most Popular iPhone games in Mainland China did not fully comply with loot box probability disclosure requirements

Loot boxes and gacha are gambling-like products inside video games that players buy with real-world money to obtain random rewards. Parents and policymakers are concerned about players, especially children, experiencing harm. Mainland China requires companies to disclose the probabilities of obtaining different rewards to promote consumer protection. Four years ago, research suggested that companies generally complied with the basic requirement to disclose; however, most companies failed to publish the disclosures prominently. The present study confirmed that loot boxes remained highly prevalent (97.0%) in mobile games and nearly all relevant games (96.9%) disclosed the probabilities for at least one loot box found within. However, upon closer inspection, 89.7% of relevant games contained other loot boxes whose probabilities have not been disclosed. The accessibility of disclosures has not improved. The prevalence and implementations of ID and age verification and other engagement and monetisation mechanics, such as daily login rewards, were also surveyed.