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ESRB relaxes rules for trailers and demos of M-rated games
Good news for people who hate age gates. The ESRB has released revised rules for the marketing of games rated M for Mature (or games likely to be), reported by Giant Bomb, allowing trailers and demos of such games to be released on websites without age gates – as long as those trailers are designed for "general" audiences and approved by the ESRB. Such trailers will include green headers noting that they have been approved for a general audience, much like those in front of movie trailers.The ESRB also allows M-rated games to be promoted via demos included in other games, even if those games have a more permissive rating. This requires ESRB approval, however, and research suggesting that the two games have the same intended audience.Other new rules include removing the mandatory 4-second ESRB logo in front of demos, as long as the rating is shown on the download page, and a removal of a restriction on placing multiple regional ratings next to each other on websites.
Report: Game industry best at preventing sale of mature content to minors
The Federal Trade Commission recently conducted an annual undercover shopping survey and found that, of the various consumer entertainment industries, the video game industry was actually best at self-policing and keeping material intended for mature audiences away from children. Following a trend since 2000, the game industry scored very well with only 13 percent of underage shoppers able to buy M-rated games, down from 20 percent last year. Of the various retailers in the survey, Walmart had the worst track record with 20 percent of sales allowed, while Target let only 8 percent of potential shoppers buy games they weren't supposed to. Outside of the game industry, the music industry was the least effective, with 64 percent of the FTC's shoppers able to buy music marked with a Parental Advisory Label. The Entertainment Software Ratings Board responded to the survey through president Patricia Vance, saying it was happy with the results and that retailers have helped. "The strong support that the ESRB ratings have enjoyed from retailers is crucial, underscoring their firm commitment to selling video games responsibly," she said in a statement. The FTC issues this report to Congress every year and says that, despite enforcement improvements across the board, "more needs to be done" to prevent the sale of mature content to young audiences.
GTA: Chinatown Wars accounts for 50% of M-rated sales on DS
Here's how you make Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars sound like a massive sales success: "As of February 2010, Chinatown Wars' unit sales in the US represented nearly 50 percent of the unit sales of all M-rated DS titles in the history of the platform." That's Take-Two CEO Ben Feder, via MCV, putting Chinatown Wars' sales into perspective. That means it met the combined sales of the 6 M-rated games on DS to date, which include Dementium: The Ward, Resident Evil: Deadly Silence and Ultimate Mortal Kombat, and the smaller releases: Theresia, Touch the Dead and C.O.R.E. Despite comparing GTA's sales to 3 games most people have never heard of, 2 games that most people didn't know were on DS, and Dementium, Feder kind of admitted that the game's sales weren't where Take-Two wanted them to be, echoing Nintendo's statement last December. What's to blame? Piracy, of course. "Piracy is a real and present danger for our industry and must be addressed, especially in the handheld market," he said. "The commercial performance of Chinatown Wars has certainly suffered at the hands of piracy."
Bayonetta's bare buttocks and other M-rated modelings
By his own account, Platinum Games modeler Kenichiro "Yoshi" Yoshimura poured in just the right amount of "blood and sweat" into the Bayonetta character model (sparing his tears, apparently). The end result has been described by the ESRB as "suggestive," contributing to the game's M-rating (of course, let's not overlook the part that "torture attacks," impaling, decapitating, dismembering, and demonic summoning play in that rating too). Specifically, Yoshi paid particular attention to perfecting Bayonetta's "backside," which, along with her breasts, can be ogled (or snickered at) during brief, in-game exposure -- oddly, in the midst of battle, according to the ESRB. "I guess I am into that sort of thing," Yoshi observes of his posterior fixation.While popular culture long ago OD'ed on anatomically eye-popping fabrications ("there are people actually proportioned like Bayonetta" ... just not any of us), video games have been traditionally confined to more adolescent incarnations of this theme, tiptoeing into the "adult" world every now and then. But if everything else is "jiggling" and "gyrating" and spreading its legs in our faces, shouldn't we allow games to taunt us too? Wait. Don't answer that. Answer this: Do we really want them to?
M-rated Tomb Raider a possibility?
Eidos recently laid off 30 employees at Crystal Dynamics, including Tomb Raider: Underworld creative director Eric Lindstrom. Understandably bitter about Eidos' cost-cutting, Lindstrom is now answering fan questions on a popular Tomb Raider fan forum, giving an intriguing and frank insight into the development process (including details Eidos probably didn't want publicized).One of the more interesting factoids to emerge from Lindstrom's open Q & A session is that Crystal Dynamics was held back by Eidos from making Underworld an M-rated title. "I wanted to do things that a Teen rating prevented," explained Lindstrom, "but I also wanted it to get the players the first unrated games, did. In the end it didn't matter because publishing wanted it to be Teen."So far, the Tomb Raider franchise has contained only Teen-rated games, but was a Mature title still a possibility? Says Lindstrom: "The managers who said it had to be Teen left some time ago, so maybe that could change sometime." We assume such a game would either include more violence, or, as some sites have been quick to suggest, a more risqué depiction of Lara.Though something evidently has to change after Underworld's disappointing sales, does anybody else find such a prospect depressing? We'd prefer it if Eidos concentrated on shipping games that, y'know, functioned correctly. Also, while we're discussing Underworld, we figured this would be an appropriate place to mention the Zero Punctuation review, which just popped up in our RSS feeds -- catch the video after the jump!%Gallery-29889%
Denver votes to allow M-rated games on mass transit
In a move sure to land on Jack Thompson's blunt "to do" spindle, Denver transit directors voted to allow M-rated games to be advertised on public transportation around the city. The vote was prompted by that pesky GTA series, namely ads for Vice City Stories that already earned a ban in Boston.Currently, the Denver RTD only bans ads for tobacco products, given the large number of young riders throughout the city, but don't place restrictions on R-rated or NC-17-rated films like some other transit systems do. Of course, they haven't even talked about banning ads for for Oprah's Book Club, but that's another insidious story altogether.Peggi O'Keefe from the Entertainment Software Association provided us with the most perplexing quote for the story: "Such restrictions are constitutionally impermissible." Now we want to make impermissible the word of the day.
Sears Xbox 360 commercial has underage kid loving M-rated games
A new Sears commercial for the Xbox 360 has a young boy named Connor telling us what he discovered at Sears. Connor hit the mother lode, because he found a 360, Need for Speed, FIFA, and ... Halo and Halo 2. He dreamily looks off-screen as he fondly remembers fragging someone on the Sanctuary, and telling them they just got pwned.Apparently Connor, his parents, and Sears all laugh in the face of the Entertainment Software Rating Board, because these two games are both rated M. While we don't always agree with the ESRB, we do find it a bit odd that Sears, a major national retailer, didn't do at least 30 seconds worth of research (which we in the business call "looking at the back of the case the game comes in") and realize that Connor is a bit too young to wax nostalgic about Halo in this nationwide spot.Check out the video after the jump, and someone let Connor know he'll be able to get Gears of War for that 360, as long as he buys it at Sears.[Thanks, otakucode]
Hidden boobies incite Oblivion rating change [update 1]
The ESRB has changed the rating of the PC version of Oblivion from T (Teen) to M (Mature). The ratings board enacted the change because the game contains stronger depictions of violence than what were featured in the content that was submitted to determine the original rating. But more importantly, the new M-rating is a result of hidden (archived) topless skin files that can be accessed via a fan-created mod.At this time, it's unclear if a recall will be issued, but the new rating, along with the addition of a "nudity" warning, will be applied to copies of Oblivion that are still on store shelves. It's also possible that Take-Two will force Bethesda to remove the archived files and re-release the game, in turn, regaining the T-rating.Update: the Xbox 360 version has also been re-rated to M due to "Blood and Gore, Language, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol, Violence" [via ESRB]. [Thanks, Scott]
