Ad description
A listing for the “Hero Wars: Alliance RPG” game, which had an age rating of 12+, seen on the Apple App Store in August 2025. Text underneath the title of the game stated, “Free - Offers In-App Purchases”.
The listing featured text and images depicting gameplay. Text at the bottom of the page, under a heading “Information”, stated “Price Free” and “In-App Purchases” followed by 10 items and their prices.
Issue
The complainant, an academic researcher in game regulation, who understood that the game contained random-item purchasing (loot boxes), challenged whether the ad was misleading because it omitted material information.
Response
Nexters Global Ltd confirmed that Hero Wars: Alliance RPG included in-app purchases, some of which were randomised (loot boxes). They said the description in the ad followed earlier industry practice for app stores, when “Offers In-App Purchases”, together with a list of purchasable items, was considered sufficient disclosure. They also said they had updated the game description to indicate the presence of loot boxes and provide information on the probability of obtaining particular items from loot boxes.
Apple (UK) Ltd said that App Store product pages were viewable before the user downloaded an app and detailed whether it included in-app purchases, specifying optional items available to purchase and setting out how much each item would cost. They also said that such information was clearly labelled under a drop-down, titled ‘In-App Purchases’. They further said that under their App Review Guidelines, developers were required to disclose the odds of receiving each type of item prior to the purchase of apps offering loot boxes.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA understood that the items received in a loot box were based on chance, and that a player would not know what items they had received in the box until the transaction was completed.
CAP Guidance stated that the presence of in-game purchasing, and particularly random-item purchasing (loot boxes), was material to a consumer’s decision to purchase or download a game, especially for consumers with specific vulnerabilities. As such, marketers were required to ensure that advertising for the game made clear that it contained in-game purchasing and, if relevant, that it included random-item purchasing. Mention of random-item purchasing should be immediately next to (or part of) information about in-game purchasing more generally.
Hero Wars: Alliance RPG contained loot boxes that were available to purchase within the game. Although the listing stated “Offers In-App Purchases” and contained a list of 10 such items and their prices, it did not contain any information to indicate to consumers that the game contained loot boxes. We therefore considered that the information included in the ad was not sufficient for consumers to understand that the in-game purchases included loot boxes.
Because the ad did not make clear that the game contained loot boxes, which we considered was material to consumers’ decisions to download the game, we concluded that the ad misleadingly omitted material information.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 and 3.3 (Misleading advertising).
Action
The ad must not appear again in the form complained of. We told Nexters Global Ltd to make clear whether games contained random item purchasing (loot boxes).
