Apple rolled out a number of
iOS App Store rule changes on Wednesday, and the one that catches your eye will likely depend on your mobile-app interests. The biggest change, at least in terms of number of people likely reached, is a tweak to a major rule about video games on the platform: how loot boxes are advertised to players.
9to5Mac was among the first sites to
dig into the rules update and pick out the big changes, and it found that Apple has opted to use the term "loot boxes," which it defines as "mechanisms that provide randomized virtual items for purchase." Now, any game or app that utilizes such a random-item system "must disclose the odds of receiving each type of item to customers prior to purchase."
However, this disclosure didn't confirm whether item types, ranging from valuable costumes to worthless "graffiti tags," had their own percentage chances. Apple's vaguely written rule would allow game companies to post similarly unclear descriptions.
Still, Apple has beaten Google to the punch in announcing this kind of loot-box odds rule, as Android's Google Play contains no such rules or requirements.
