Ethical Dilemmas in the Gaming Industry: EA Games Case Study

This case study analyzes the ethical issues surrounding EA Games, particularly concerning the controversial "loot box" feature in its popular games like FIFA and Madden NFL. The case study explores the history of EA Games, its impact on society, and identifies key stakeholders, including governments, parents, and IT developers. It delves into the ethical implications of loot boxes, such as encouraging addiction and gambling among children, and compares good and bad ethical practices using examples of Tesco and Accenture. The study highlights the negative effects of loot boxes on societal values and proposes recommendations for EA Games to address these issues, such as eliminating harmful features and exploring alternative revenue sources. The study also references several academic journals and online resources to support its arguments, providing a comprehensive overview of the ethical dilemmas within the gaming industry and the responsibilities of companies like EA Games.

CASE STUDY

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Part 1................................................................................................................................................1
History of organization ..............................................................................................................1
Ethical issues...............................................................................................................................1
Role of business in society .........................................................................................................1
Five stakeholders.........................................................................................................................2
Example of good and bad ethics.................................................................................................3
Recommendations.......................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

Part 1
History of organization
EA Games was founded in the year 1991, as a electronic art sports network. It was founded in
the UK. EA sports used to publish variety of different games such as FIFA Football, Madden
NFL, Fight Night, NBA Live, NCAA Football, Cricket.
Ethical issues
EA Games is one of the largest company in the world in the gaming domain. It is known
for developing world class games. FIFA and cricket as well as NFS are some of the top games of
the EA which are very popular among the people. From past few years debate is going on the
“Loot box” feature that is seen in the EA and other company’s games. In the Belgium loot box
are banned. Under this feature children’s who are game addicted make purchase of the loot box
to obtain specific features to make game more interesting (King and Delfabbro, 2019). During
purchase they even do not know whether feature they intend to obtain will be in loot box or not.
They spend money and if not get required feature again spend money to get intended feature.
Ultimately what happened is that gamer spend thousand of dollar on game and become
game addicted. In US and other nations of the world examples are seen where children take
ATM card and withdraw money or make online transactions from debit card and parents even do
not aware about such kind of things. Ultimately, due to this reason parents come to know about
real situation when large amount gets debited from their account. This is one of the ethical issue
because under these children become addicted to game and spend their valuable time and
parent’s money on game which in no way can be considered good. From company side it can be
said that these firms are making effort to make children game addicted which greatly affect their
life. This is one of the major ethical issue associated with the loot box feature of games. Top
officer of EA sports is not agreeing with such kind of things and they state that loot box feature
is like a Kinder egg and it is quite ethical as they are providing this feature to make game more
enjoyable for the gamers (Brady and Prentice, 2019). Gamers are even not happy with such kind
of feature and many journalists, intellectuals believe that such kind of fe4ature are making
children’s gambler.
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Role of business in society
EA sports and ethical issue identified above are negatively affecting society because
addiction of anything in no way can be considered good for the firm. Loot feature is motivating
children to become addicted and gamble to get intended feature. In small age children are
learning spending of money or extravagance which prove costly in adulthood. Those children’s
who are doing such kind of things after being reaching in adult stage become addicted of many
other things and to complete their appetite spend large amount even they earn less (Summerley, ,
2020). To complete hunger they even take debt which ultimately ruin their life. Such kind of
children failed to give any contribution to nation growth and do not prove any valuable asset for
the society. EA sport loot box feature is making children’s unethical and due to this reason, it can
be said that EA sports and ethical issue identified to great extent are playing crucial role in
cutting strong roots of society by taking small kids in wrong direction.
Five stakeholders Government: It is one of the main stakeholders in this ethical issue. Government try to
make effective use of its HR so that country growth can be accelerated at rapid pace. If in
any nation large population will be addicted then it will not be able to channelize its
energy towards nation growth. This is the reason due to the which Belgium Government
take steps to handle situation and banned loot box. They also used to take some sort of
revenue from the same. As survey showed that 30 percent of customer used to gamble
responsibly in UK (Stakeholder data, 2019). Society: Society greatly affected because if young generation will go in the wrong
direction then in that case entire society observe mass destruction of moral values,
discipline and self-responsibility etc. Addicted individual’s give top priority to their
passion not their responsibility. Such kind of behaviour of adults negatively affect
society. There are 46 % of the consumer who used to gamble in UK, once in 4 weeks
(Stakeholder data, 2019) Parents and children: Ethical issue greatly affect parents and children because loot box
feature make them gambler and to great extent promote materialism among them. Thus,
one instead of focusing on education pay attention to its addiction and ruin its life. Hence,
parents and children are one of the main stakeholders in the ethical issue. 17 percent of
the person who used to bet are less than age of 30.
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 IT Development: They are another interested party in the development of the game. As
game which will be developed by the organization will provide the services to the
consumer to bet online with the help of the internet. So it is very important for the
organization to have good IT backhand team in the organization There are 55 % of the
consumer who have gambled with the help of online platform. (Stakeholder data, 2019).
 Owners: They are another intersted party in the manufactirong of the game in the nation.
As If situation that currently exists remain in future and become more severe then in that
case Government can take strict action against. EA sports owner may have to see decline
in the business profit (Andriof and et.al., 2017).
Example of good and bad ethics
As part of bad ethical practices Tesco can be considered as good example on which
number of cases are running currently in the court in respect to chicken welfare controversy,
dishonest corporate policy, faking price cuts and health and safety etc. In Ward VS Tesco Ltd
case is filed against retailer for injury that caused to the customer. Tesco VS Nattrass case is
about misleading by the store managers of Tesco (Smith., 2019). Hence, it can be said that Tesco
is not working ethically. Accenture is one of the most ethical company as it has its own code of
practices which are strictly followed in the business. Accenture follow all laws in all nations of
the world where it operates.
Recommendations
It is recommended that EA sports must identify features of the games which are not good for
children’s and must eliminate those features. Instead to this it must identify other sources of
income so that loss that cause due to elimination of loot box feature can be covered in easy way
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Brady, A. and Prentice, G., 2019. Are Loot Boxes Addictive? Analyzing Participant’s
Physiological Arousal While Opening a Loot Box. Games and Culture.
p.1555412019895359.
King, D.L. and Delfabbro, P.H., 2019. Video game monetization (eg,‘loot boxes’): a blueprint
for practical social responsibility measures. International Journal of Mental Health and
Addiction. 17(1). pp.166-179.
Larche, C.J and et.al., 2019. Rare Loot Box Rewards Trigger Larger Arousal and Reward
Responses, and Greater Urge to Open More Loot Boxes. Journal of gambling studies. pp.1-
23.
Andriof, J and et.al., 2017. Unfolding stakeholder thinking: theory, responsibility and
engagement. Routledge.
Jones, T. M., Wicks, A. C. and Freeman, R. E., 2017. Stakeholder theory: The state of the art.
The Blackwell guide to business ethics, pp.17-37.
Online
Gaming loot boxes what happened when Belgium banned them? 2019. [Online]. Available
through:< https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-49674333>.
Smith., J., 2019. [Online]. The world’s most ethical companies. Available through:<
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2013/03/06/the-worlds-most-ethical-
companies-in-2013/#7095ba005e93>.
Stakeholder data. 2019 [ONLINE] Available through
<https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/PDF/survey-data/Gambling-participation-in-
2018-behaviour-awareness-and-attitudes.pdf>.
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