Xbox is banning users for automatically uploading steamy sex scenes from Baldur’s Gate 3::Baldur’s Gate 3 allows characters to remove their clothes and romance other characters. It’s getting users in trouble with Xbox Live.
I believe XBox is featured in frequently enough among the kids bankrupt parents buying microtransactions news stories to indicate they are or were inadequate. But the ESA actively fought regulations both about parent-controlling microtransactions and mandating warnings on ESRB and PEGI notifications.
To be fair, when I played Far Cry 5 on PC the real-money market was too readily available and the only way to turn it off was to delete my credit cards from Uplay.
If XBox can eliminate shopping pages entirely to make games kid safe (even from dark patterns) then yes, I’d call that robust parental controls. If the markets are still accessible in game but requires a pass gate to complete a purchase, I’d say those are mediocre parental controls since the game is still telling kids there’s more fun to be had by spending real money.
If microtransactions are not blocked at all, or require complex access to parental control settings to opt out of one-click-buy, then that would be classified as maliciously shitty parental controls. It indicates the companies are capitalizing on accidental purchases and exploiting mental biases to compel impulsive purchasing (id est exploiting whales).
