There's a lot of chatter at the moment surrounding the practice of 'loot boxes' and 'pay-to-win' mechanics in video games, so much so that some countries are outlawing these systems outright.

One country that has adopted a hardline stance is Belgium, which is taking steps to ensure that 'pay-to-win' schemes are rooted out of video games, both domestic and mobile. This action has resulted in a dramatic reaction from Nintendo, as it has been announced that services for both Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp and Fire Emblem Heroes – both of which are free-to-play and make extensive use of microtransactions – will end in the region on August 27th this year.

According to NintenDaan – who has kindly translated the original tweet from Nintendo – players will be able to continue using Orbs and Leaf Tickets up until the point the games are pulled. After the services close in August, both games will be removed from app stores in Belgium and will not function. It is also stated that any future games that adopt a similar payment model will not be eligible for release in Belgium.

This news doesn't impact any other European countries, where the games will continue to operate as normal, complete with 'pay-to-win' mechanics. However, should any other nations decide that loot boxes and 'pay-to-win' mechanics are effectively a form of gambling, then we could see these titles (and potentially future ones) get removed.