China passes loot box law

Loot boxes are a thing in many video games. You level up and you earn boxes or you can buy them for a set fee. Inside you can find many a in-game items. For example, in Overwatch you can get character skins, emotes, sprays, etc. Right now we have no idea what our odds are of getting items we want as its usually always random.

Well, China passed a law that's going to be a game changer. Starting May 2017, developers will have to start disclosing the probabilities of what could be inside the boxes in games like Overwatch, Counter Strike, and Hearthstone. 

Here are the stipulations (as translated by NeoGAF user chillybright):

2.6 ...Online game publishers shall promptly publicly announce information about the name, property, content, quantity, and draw/forge probability of all virtual items and services that can be drawn/forge on the official website or a dedicated draw probability webpage of the game. The information on draw probability shall be true and effective.
2.7 Online game publishers shall publicly announce the random draw results by customers on notable places of official website or in game, and keep record for government inquiry. The record must be kept for more than 90 days. When publishing the random draw results, some measures should be taken place to protect user privacy.

This doesn't mean that we will be able to choose what we get in our loot boxes or see the probabilities because this law is only going to apply in China. However, that doesn't mean that it couldn't reach the Western hemisphere. This could be huge for developers and us gamers who feel like loot boxes are kind of a crap shoot gambler's audition. It is kind of messed up when we put in time into a game and we don't get the items we want out of these loot boxes.

This looks like a good step in the right direction for gamers and loot boxes. Hope it comes to the West.