UPDATE 31/5/22: Activision Blizzard has now officially confirmed the announcement that it has canceled the launch of Diablo Immortal in Belgium and the Netherlands.
“Diablo Immortal will not be available in Belgium or the Netherlands and will not appear on Battle.net or the Belgium and Netherlands app or the Google Play Stores,” an activision Blizzard spokesman told Eurogamer this morning.
“This is related to the current operating environment for games in these countries. Accordingly, pre-registrations for the game are not available in these markets.”
ORIGINAL HISTORY 30/5/22: It is reported that the long-awaited launch of Diablo Immortal has been suspended this week in both Belgium and the Netherlands due to countries’ laws on loot boxes.
Activision’s communications manager Blizzard Benelux confirmed the move to Dutch news site Tweakers, GamesIndustry.biz reported, citing “current working conditions in those countries.” Eurogamer contacted Activision Blizzard here in the UK for comment.
Pre-registration for the mobile launch of the game and the beta version of the computer has also been withdrawn in both countries, it is claimed.
A quick look at Diablo Immortal, which arrives this week.
Both Belgium and the Netherlands have historically taken a strong stance on prey box mechanics games, most notably FIFA’s Ultimate Team package sales.
As early as 2018, the Netherlands and Belgium announced that loot boxes were a form of gambling and therefore illegal. EA withdrew FIFA Points from sale the following year, although it continued to wage a lengthy legal battle to receive a € 10 million fine for canceling the sale of FIFA booty boxes.
Four years later, EA was ultimately successful, and the Dutch Supreme Court controversially overturned an earlier ruling, saying EA had not violated gambling laws in the country.
Still, Blizzard doesn’t seem to be taking any chances.
An unconfirmed email apparently from Blizzard Europe’s customer support team also appeared on reddit, which provides more details.
“Unfortunately, players in the Netherlands and Belgium will not be able to install Diablo: Immortal due to gambling restrictions in the countries. The game box in the game is against the law in your country, so unless the gambling restrictions change, the game will not be released, “it said.
“It would be illegal to withdraw the game to another country like France. If you manage to start the game, I can’t guarantee that you won’t be banned from it. ”
Diablo Immortal launches this Wednesday, June 2, for both mobile devices and PCs through an open beta version of Battle.net. Here in the UK, the servers are online from 18:00 BST.
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