Frequently Asked Questions Regarding Legislation
on Pay-to-Win and Loot Boxes
The purpose of this legislation is simple: to eliminate exploitative monetization practices fromvideo games played by children.

Which games would be covered?
The bill’s prohibition of pay-to-win and loot boxes applies to two categories of games.
MINOR-ORIENTED GAMESThis category is defined using a framework inspired by the landmark Children’s Online
Privacy Protection Act and the recent update proposed by Senators Hawley and Markey.
Determinations of a game’s target audience would be made by reference to a number offactors including subject matter, visual content, use of animated characters, advertisingmaterials, and other indicators.
GAMES FOR GENERAL AUDIENCES

The prohibition would apply to other games if developers and distributors have constructive
knowledge that some users are under the age of 18.

How will developers know which games can include pay-to-win or loot boxes?
These sound like very broad categories that would include some of the most popular games on the market.
While it is true that a large proportion of game players are adults, even games withpredominantly adult player bases – including games marketed primarily to adults – tend
to have enormous appeal to children. The onus should be on developers to deter childconsumption of products that foster gambling and similarly compulsive purchasing behavior,
just as is true in other industries that restrict access to certain kinds of products and forms ofentertainment to adult consumers.

Does this bill ban all downloadable content?
No. The bill distinguishes between one-time-purchase downloadable content providing newexperiences for players and downloadable content available for repeated purchase thatserves primarily to distort player progression through existing content, explicitly exempting
the former from its prohibitions.

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How are loot boxes defined?
Loot boxes are defined as microtransactions offering randomized or partially randomized
rewards for purchase.
The definition also includes another category of loot boxes whose contents are made known
to a player before purchase, if the purchase of one such loot box enables a subsequentpurchase of a new loot box whose contents are unknown to the player prior to the firstpurchase. The rationale for including this additional category of loot boxes is that effectively
the player purchases not just the initial items but also the chance that the next set of items
will offer what he or she actually hopes to purchase.

How is pay-to-win defined?
The bill covers two types of pay-to-win microtransactions in overlapping categories of games.
PROGRESSION-BASED GAMESThis category includes both single-player games and multiplayer games featuring some formof player progression and covers any game that a reasonable user perceives as including
a set of goals, rewards, progression through content (including narrative progression), ora scoring system. For such games, pay-to-win is defined as downloadable content that,from the perspective of an individual user, eases progression through such content, assistsin accomplishing the game’s goals, or permits a user to continue to access game content
rendered inaccessible after the expiration of a timer or number of gameplay attempts.
COMPETITIVE GAMESThis category, which overlaps with progression-based games, includes games featuring
competition between players. For such games, pay-to-win is defined as downloadable
content that, from the perspective of a reasonable user, provides a competitive advantage.
The bill’s exemption for downloadable content providing additional game content is definedby reference to these sort of pay-to-win microtransactions to prevent publishers from using
the new content exemption as a loophole through which to continue to include pay-to-win
content in games played by children.

What about cosmetic downloadable content?
Cosmetic downloadable content is excluded from the bill’s prohibitions. The bill does
commission a study of microtransactions that includes a study of the potential of cosmetic
downloadable content to induce compulsive purchasing behavior by children.

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