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UK committee: Video game companies should pay for study of games' impact

Video game companies should pay a levy to help fund research into the long-term effects of gameplay, according to a U.K. parliamentary committee.

An investigation of "immersive and addictive technologies" by the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee concluded that the games industry has not sufficiently accepted responsibility for understanding and preventing potential harms caused by gaming. The committee's report encouraged the government to compel companies to share aggregated player data with researchers and to pay for an impartial body of academics and industry representatives to oversee additional research on the effects of video games.

"Policy-making and potential industry interventions are being hindered by a lack of robust evidence, which in part stems from companies' unwillingness to share data about patterns of play," the committee said in a report published Sept. 12.

The committee, which is formed of members of Parliament, in June questioned mobile gaming studio King Digital Entertainment PLC about the way it uses data. The Candy Crush maker said it employs at least 50 data scientists to make its games "more appealing" but pushed back against concerns that it was creating "psychological profiles" of players.

The MPs also recommend that so-called loot boxes — a term that refers to a virtual item in games that can be redeemed — should not be sold to children.

"Loot box mechanics are integral to major games companies' revenues, and evidence that they facilitate profiting from problem gamblers should be of serious concern to the industry," they said.

The committee will next study potential gambling-related harms associated with gaming.