The Australian government is implementing new regulations restricting games with loot boxes or in-game casinos or gambling from being played by minors. If your game includes in-game purchases involving an element of chance, it will be given an M rating at a minimum. If the game involves simulated gambling, even as minor as a slot machine minigame in an RPG that otherwise has nothing to do with gambling? Automatic R 18+ rating.
The details of the new regulations can be found here. In-game purchases linked to elements of chance involve things like purchaseable loot boxes or randomised rewards from an in-game shop where real money can be spent. These games will not be restricted from sale to minors, but will be rated at least M, which means that they are not recommended for children under the age of 15. The simulated gambling elements which will get your game slapped with an R 18+ rating include social games which are solely based around “gambling activities such as slot machine simulators, roulette wheels or other age-restricted gambling or betting services.” If your game includes a gambling or slot machine minigame, like the Game Corner in Pokémon Red and Blue, it will also be restricted to sale to adults only.
There are a few carve-outs to the new regulations. If your game includes chance-based mechanics with no way to spend real-world money on it, such as the materials obtained by hunting in a Monster Hunter game, it will probably not have its rating impacted. Furthermore, video games “which feature casino settings, imagery or themes but do not allow players to engage or interact with gambling activities” are not intended to be restricted to grown-ups only, so the recently-released and incredibly wholesome Astro Bot is unlikely to be deemed appropriate only for adults just for its Slo-Mo Casino level.
These ratings are not retroactive for games released before the 22nd of September 2024. However, if the game is re-released or adds gambling elements via DLC, it may need to be reclassified. This is not the first time the Australian government has taken a strong stance against loot boxes and gambling elements; during the anti-loot box furor of 2017 following the release of Star Wars Battlefront II, a Victorian gambling regulator called loot boxes “legally questionable“. In addition to these restrictions on gambling content, the Australian ratings board has also taken a hard line against drug references in video games, bumping up their ratings to R18+ regardless of how incongruous that might seem based on the rest of the content. Australia isn’t alone in taking a hard stance against elements of chance in games; loot boxes have been flat-out banned in Belgium. This may have been one of the factors leading Overwatch 2 to abandon its predecessor’s loot boxes in favour of a more transparent battle pass model.
At any rate, the new regulations are being phased in on the 22nd of September 2024. Although the Australian market is far from the biggest, it will be interesting to see if these new guidelines will impact the kind of content being included in games going forward.
