The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is asking the developer of Genshin Impact to prevent young teens from making in-game purchases

Younger children and teens may not be able to play soon Genshin Impact gachas. The developer behind the game has Agreed To prevent players under the age of 16 from making in-game purchases without parental consent in order to settle an FTC complaint. It also agreed to pay a fine of $20 million. “Genshin Impact tricked children, teens, and other players into spending hundreds of dollars on prizes they had little chance of winning,” said Samuel Levin, Director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

The committee said in its complaint that the developer’s marketing actively targeted children, and the company also violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by collecting personal information from children under the age of 13. HoYoverse, the developer’s US entity, is allegedly deceiving players “about the odds of winning” its rare loot box. prizes and uses a virtual currency system that is confusing and unfair to children and younger teens. The FTC says this misleads players about how much they actually have to spend to be able to get rare prizes. Genshin Impact It uses a gacha system instead of a traditional loot box mechanic, where players can “pull” banners to win a random item or character.

Under the FTC’s proposed order, it wants a ban Genshin Impact It is prohibited to sell loot boxes using virtual currency unless they also provide the option to purchase them directly with real money. It wants to prevent the developer from misrepresenting loot box odds and operations, and wants to require the company to disclose the odds of gachas and the virtual currency exchange rate. The Commission wants to require HoYoverse to delete personal information collected from children up to the age of 13 unless parental consent is also obtained. A federal judge still has to approve the proposed order with all of these requirements, so it won’t be implemented immediately.