The president of Take-Two Interactive does not view loot boxes as a form of gambling

Two-Two Interactive company president Karl Slatoff does not view loot boxes as a form of gambling.

Speaking at Credit Suisse’s 21st Annual Technology, Media and Telecom Conference – as reported by Gamasutra – Slatoff weighed in on the issue, stating that he does not view loot boxes as a form of gambling.

“In terms of the consumer noise you hear in the market right now, for me it’s really all about content”, he reportedly said. “It’s about over-delivering on content (…) you can’t force the consumer to do anything.”

Take-Two Interactive, the company that owns both Rockstar Games and 2K Games, has been very clear on the value of microtransactions in their games. Back in July, company CEO Strauss Zelnick said that “you can’t give stuff away for free in perpetuity; there’s no business model in that“. The implication was that all games going forward would include microtransactions.

Grand Theft Auto Online, which encourages users to buy money in-game, has been extraordinarily successful at generating revenue. GTA 5 is, in fact, the best selling game ever in the US. NBA 2K18, on the other hand, annoyed a lot of players with its aggressive emphasis on microtransactions.

It’s hard not to wonder what this all means for Red Dead Redemption 2, which is looking pretty nice in the footage we’ve seen so far. Will the game have an online mode, equivalent to Grand Theft Auto Online, and if so will we be encouraged to spend our money within it?

We don’t know anything definitive just yet – hopefully we won’t have another Star Wars Battlefront 2-style debacle on our hands any time soon.

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