Sony PSP Go game dev taken aback by lofty ESRB rating costs

Nothing really new here -- the ESRB has been charging a nominal fee to get its saucy logos on your game for years upon years now -- but the discussion of fairness has recently surfaced with the introduction of Sony's UMD-less PSP Go. A few game developers are voicing concerns about the amount the ESRB charges (we're hearing around $2,500) in order for their titles to receive a rating, particularly when those very same titles don't have such a costly requirement in Apple's App Store. Subatomic Studios, for instance, can charge $2.99 for the iPhone version of Fieldrunners, while the same game is priced at $6.99 on the PlayStation Store. Naturally, the ESRB would love to get in on App Store ratings, but it's hard to say just how long (if ever) that cracking process will take. So, any of you devs put off by the ESRB fee? Put off enough to sidestep PSP Go development altogether?

[Via Joystiq]

[Sam of the Sun Posted Oct 12th 2009 5:23PM]

But Goldeneye was awesome.

[ctgaffney Posted Oct 12th 2009 3:43PM]

Damn you Joe Lieberman and your evil organization that started from a fear of the game "Night Trap" and getting those funny feelings when looking at the late Dana Plato!

[kingdom2000 Posted Oct 12th 2009 8:44PM]

The price strikes me as excessive overall but no surprise. Have to pay those execs a lot money so they can ask stupid questions about reports and graphs.

One thing of note though...if the cost of the game is all the ESRB's fault...shouldn't that mean the games should drop in price after that fee is recooped. For example, in Fieldrunners apparently costs $4 more because of the fee plus Sony's extra charge (they don't do a split like Apple does). So after a thousand or so copies are sold, does that mean a price drop might occur? I am betting no because the studio will enjoy a larger profit margin from that point onward.

Overall, the release of the PSP Go seems to be an exercise is excessive corporate greed. The design from top to bottom is to get you to spend money to buy the things you already own all over again. Its one thing when its a game you can't really find or buy anymore but its another when its something as simple as a charger, extra memory, or brand new games. The more I read about the PSP Go the more it seems its in the best interests of the video game community to boycott the system if only to make sure no company takes Sony's lead on new ways to screw their customers.

[WmPenn Posted Oct 12th 2009 11:01PM]

Make note to self, never become a game developer.

[WmPenn Posted Oct 12th 2009 11:03PM]

Make note to self, never become a game developer.

[xnox Posted Oct 13th 2009 12:14PM]

Wikipedia:
To obtain a rating for a game, a publisher sends the ESRB videotaped footage of the most graphic and extreme content found in the game. The publisher also fills out a questionnaire describing the game's content and pays a fee based on the game's development cost:[7]
$800 fee for development costs under USD $250k
$4,000 fee for development costs over $250k

So where is $2500?