Nintendo has become the latest publisher affected by a 2018 decision by Belgium's Gaming Commission to treat games with randomized loot boxes as an illegal form of gambling. The publisher announced that mobile titles Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp and Fire Emblem Heroes will be shut down in Belgium on August 27. In a published statement that was translated by Eurogamer, Nintendo of Belgium chalks up the move "to the current unclear situation in Belgium regarding certain in-game revenue models."

Fire Emblem Heroes lets players summon new heroes via a "gacha"-style mechanic that provides random characters to assist in battle. Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp also offers randomized boxes of "fortune cookies" that can contain some of the game's most valuable items. Both would seem to be a clear violation of the Belgian Gaming Commission's 2018 ruling, which prohibits titles that offer variable in-game items via "games of chance."

Blizzard, Valve, and 2K quickly removed or altered games for the country in the wake of the ruling, and EA gave up a legal fight against Belgian regulators in January. It's not clear why Nintendo took so much longer to be directly affected by Belgium's decision or why these game removals don't also apply in the Netherlands, which has ruled similarly against loot boxes.

While Belgian players will have a few months to spend their remaining in-game currency in these games, Nintendo also says that "future Nintendo games with similar earnings models will no longer be released in Belgium." That could affect titles like Mario Kart Tour, which launched today in an Android beta that early reports suggest contains a "multi-level gacha for drivers, karts, and gliders."

Lack of access to the relatively small Belgian market is unlikely to have a major impact on the bottom line for Nintendo or any of its specific loot box-fueled mobile games. But efforts in the US and other many countries could eventually put more pressure on game makers to rein in the practice of offering randomized item packs across the industry.