A class action lawsuit has been filed against Nintendo this month due to their use of loot boxes in Mario Kart Tour.
Nintendo woke up to a class action lawsuit by a child and his parent pertaining to the Mario Kart Tour loot boxes today, as reported by Axios. The lawsuit suggests that these pipes exploit the “Gambler’s Fallacy” to make it enticing for the people to draw more from the pipe in hopes of getting the characters they wanted.
The ‘pipes’ in question are the Mario Kart Tour‘s version of the loot box. These pipes contain racers, karts, or a kart part that can boost players’ stats on certain race tracks. This means the more characters, karts, and kart parts you have, the better your performance will be.
The lawsuit claims this practice is immoral and unethical because the defendant—in this case, Nintendo—allegedly failed to mention the odds of the loot box. In this case, the odds are the chances of unlocking certain characters. The lawsuit argues this conduct is unfair as the title coerces its players to make decisions against their own interest which results in real monetary loss by the use of limited-time deals and periodical pipes.
While Mario Kart Tour removed its loot box mechanic that uses real-world money in Sept. 2022, the lawsuit still goes for it as the company has still earned quite a bit of money while giving players worthless rewards or rewards that the players did not want from the loot box during the times it was available.
One key clause in the lawsuit repeatedly mentions that the game’s odds were hidden from the gaming public. However, a quick search on the internet will lead you to several articles about the odds of the characters in Mario Kart Tour.
The reported odds for pipes in Mario Kart Tour are as follows:
We’ve reached out to Nintendo for comment regarding the lawsuit but at the time of writing, the company has not issued a response.
Loot box lawsuits aren’t something new to the industry as this is still a heavily discussed topic until now. Blizzard was recently hit with a lawsuit regarding Hearthstone in regard to card packs. Since the lawsuit was filed in May, there’s been no conclusion.
EA is another studio that was hit by a loot box lawsuit regarding FIFA 23‘s loot boxes. That Californian lawsuit alleged that it is unlawful gambling, but the judge ruled against it.
