For The Win: Senator seeks review of loot boxes, new 'Metal Gear' out

Welcome to "For The Win," The Fly's weekly recap of the stories powering up or beating down video game stocks. NEW RELEASES: Among this week's major game releases is Konami's "Metal Gear Survive," a survival action-adventure game in the "Metal Gear" series that launched on PC, PlayStation 4 (SNE), and Xbox One (MSFT) yesterday in North America and Japan. Also out this week is Microsoft's "Age of Empires: Definitive Edition," a remastered version of the 1997 real-time strategy game "Age of Empires." The game launched earlier this week on PC. LAWMAKER GOES AFTER LOOT BOXES: Last week, Rolling Stone's Glixel arm reported that U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan, a Democrat from New Hampshire, issued a letter calling on the Entertainment Software Ratings Board, or ESRB, to review the ratings process as it pertains to loot boxes, a form of microtransactions that appears in many modern video games. Hassan called on the ESRB to examine the marketing of such microtransactions to children and develop best practices for developers around such loot boxes. The senator also asked the board to conduct a study that further investigates the reach and impact of loot boxes in games. Publicly traded game makers that have released games with these kinds of microtransactions include Activision Blizzard (ATVI), Electronic Arts (EA), Take-Two (TTWO), Ubisoft (UBSFY), and Warner Bros. Interactive (TWX). NINTENDO REPORTEDLY DENIES REFUNDS: TechCrunch reported this morning that Nintendo (NTDOY) has been accused of violating European law by not allowing consumers to receive refunds on pre-ordered games. The company was singled out as the worst offender of seven major digital video games platforms that were examined by the Norwegian Consumer Council in this probe. 'SPYRO' REMASTER: Kotaku reported last week that Activision is currently developing remastered versions of the first three "Spyro the Dragon" games, which all originally launched on the original PlayStation. The remastered trilogy will be announced in March 2018 and is expected to come out in the third quarter of 2018, the report said. The game collection will features new assets, lighting, animations, and cinematics, as well as a revamped soundtrack, and will be announced for Sony's PlayStation 4 as a one-year timed exclusive before launching on other systems in 2019, Kotaku said. Activision's "Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy," a trio of remastered games from the PS1 era which launched in June 2017, has sold 3.37M total units worldwide, according to VG Chartz.