Games With “Paid Random Items” Like Loot Boxes Will Carry a PEGI 16 Rating Starting This June

The Pan European Game Information (PEGI) rating system is undergoing major changes starting in June 2026, as four new categories are being added to how the ratings body classifies games submitted to it. Games with "paid random items" like loot boxes will start to carry a PEGI 16 rating by default, and in some cases, they could potentially be given a PEGI 18 rating.

It's not just loot boxes under fire here. The ratings body is also adding classification categories related to in-game purchases across the board, while also adding new classifications for games that contain communication features but don't provide you with a means of blocking or reporting another player and a classification for games that reward players for returning to a game with things like daily quests.

These changes come out of PEGI working with its internal committees and specifically collaborating with the German age rating authority, Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (USK). "It was incredibly useful to learn from the experiences of our colleagues in Germany," said Dirk Bosmans, PEGI's director, in a press release. "We are confident that these ambitious updates to PEGI's classification criteria will provide parents and players with more useful and transparent advice that better reflects the overall experience that players can expect from the video games they play."

The four new categories and the default ratings for games that include features included in these categories are:

• Purchases of in-game content: games with time-limited or quantity-limited offers will be classified with a PEGI 12, games with NFTs or blockchain-related mechanisms will be PEGI 18.
• Paid random items: the default rating will be PEGI 16 if the game contains paid random items (and in some cases they can be a PEGI 18)
• Play-by-appointment: mechanisms that reward returning to the game (e.g. daily quests) will get a PEGI 7. If these mechanisms punish players for not returning (e.g. by losing content or reducing progress) they will become PEGI 12.
• Safe online gameplay: if games contain entirely unrestricted communication features (e.g. no blocking or reporting), they will be PEGI 18

In an interview with Eurogamer, Bosmans is clear that the new paid random items category includes "your average card pack systems, gacha systems, but also keys to unlock the random items." Any game selling those kinds of items will get a PEGI 16 rating. Bosmans does add, though, that there are ways publishers could lower the rating to a PEGI 7 or PEGI 12, and that these changes are still experimental for the ratings board, but it sounds like the days of games with loot boxes getting a PEGI 3 rating are over.

"We will not rule out in the future that, if the PEGI 7 with mitigating circumstances for in-game purchases works, that if companies would develop in-game controls that put access to paid loot boxes off by default, we might see a PEGI 12. But for the moment, that doesn't exist."

The first games that will be given ratings based on these new categories are expected to be those releasing this summer, as games can be submitted ahead of these new categories going into full effect. Some of the most stark differences we'll likely see once these new categories are in full force will be in pretty much every single EA Sports game. The annual releases of EA Sports FC, EA Sports PGA Tour, EA Sports Madden NFL, and EA Sports College Football all currently have PEGI 3 ratings. EA Sports NHL games currently receive PEGI 12 ratings, while EA Sports UFC already gets a PEGI 16 rating.

Under these new categories, we can expect EA Sports FC 27 to get the full PEGI 16 rating - unless EA wants to remove the loot box-driven Ultimate Team element from the game and its equivalents across the rest of its portfolio of sports games to keep the PEGI 3 rating. It ultimately may not have an impact on how well the game sells, but these new ratings will at least give parents who may otherwise be unaware of how in-game purchases in EA Sports titles work more insight into the risks involved.

Loot boxes have been under fire for a long time now. There have been several attempts to take legal action against video game companies that implement them into their games, with the most recent being the New York attorney general filing a lawsuit against Valve for loot boxes in games like Counter-Strike.

While the idea of actual legislation against them is less likely to actually come to fruition (though it has happened in some regions), if these changes cause video game companies to alter their approach to loot boxes and microtransactions within games, that could be enough to bring about a much better ecosystem where these kinds of purchases aren't as predatory as they have been before. And if the ESRB follows in PEGI's path, we could see even more impactful changes.

In a separate interview with GamesIndustry.Biz, Bosmans adds that he does expect game developers and publishers to push back somewhat. "It's not unthinkable that in the next few months, some companies will go like, 'This is outrageous.' But I would also ask them to read the room, and see where we are these days in terms of regulatory pressure on the one hand, responsibilities [of] the industry on the other hand, and how to move forward in between those."

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