Pokémon Unite shutting down in Belgium and Netherlands next year
Amid countries' tighter loot box restrictions.
Pokémon Unite, the hugely popular free-to-play MOBA from Tencent's TiMi Studios, is being yanked offline in Belgium and Netherlands from November next year, amid the countries' ongoing crackdown on loot boxes in games.
All versions of Pokémon Unite - that is, on Android, iOS, and Switch - will be pulled from digital stores on 30th November 2025, but subscriptions and in-game items will cease to be available much earlier. They'll no longer be purchasable from 31st October this year.
"We'd like to thank our players in Belgium and Netherlands for their support," The Pokémon Company wrote in an announcement on its website, "and we apologise for any inconvenience."
While no reason for the game's termination was provided in The Pokémon Company's statement, the decision is almost certainly related to loot box restrictions in Belgium and Netherlands. Loot boxes have been illegal under Belgium's gambling laws since 2018 (although enforcement has reportedly been patchy), while the Netherlands government continues to pursue a loot box ban and close a loophole that let EA off the hook in 2022.
Pokémon Unite - which features a loot box-style mechanic known as the Prize Machine - wouldn't be the only game to wave goodbye to Belgium and Netherlands thanks to their loot box laws. In 2022, Activision Blizzard scrapped Diablo Immortal's launch as a result of "the current operating environment for games in those countries", while other titles - such as the original Overwatch - have had their loot boxes removed in response to the restrictions.
In the UK, the previous Conservative government was less inclined to draft legislation concerning loot boxes, but warned the UK games industry that laws would be drafted if it didn't protect young people from them. In response, UKIE (the UK industry's trade association) last year announced 11 Principles as part of "improved protections for children, young people and adults following concerns raised about loot boxes".