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Zangeki no Reginleiv just assumes you don't need all those limbs
Zangeki no Reginleiv, everybody! No, we didn't just wish you happy holidays in Russian -- that's the name of Nintendo's upcoming Japanese release (it basically means "Dynamic Slash," or "Dynamic Zan") that's not only its first Cero D-rated ("M") title ever, but also developed by Sandlot, the folks behind 2007's action gem-in-the-rough Earth Defense Force 2017. As you can see in the new trailer (posted for your viewing enjoyment after the break), the game features Norse heroes doing some MotionPlus-enabled hacking and slashing that results in screen-filling sprays of blood and dismemberment. Good, good times. It's highly unlikely we'll ever see this one show up here in North America -- Nintendo of America and mature games don't usually mix well. But you can still grab your Wiimote, watch this trailer while waving your arms around, and dream.
Brazilian senator hopes to ban sale of 'offensive' games
[Rondonia Digital] Though Brazil is no stranger to banning video games, a recently proposed bill from Senator Valdir Raupp certainly seems pretty drastic. Raupp's bill, which was recently passed by the Education Commission of the Senate, and will now go to vote in the Committee on Constitution and Justice, seeks to "curb the manufacture, distribution, importation, distribution, trading and custody, storage [of] the video games that affect the customs [and] traditions of the people, their worship, creeds, religions and symbols." According to Brazilian news site UOL, if the bill passes, folks caught violating the law could be subject to one to three years imprisonment. That's quite a bit of jail time to serve for just importing a copy of Grand Theft Auto IV, dont'cha think? [Via GamePolitics]
FTC commends ESRB and gaming industry for self-regulation practices
The Federal Trade Commission recently published a report which should simultaneously flatter the video game industry and stymie adversaries of the medium's terribly corruptive properties. In the report, the FTC says the gaming industry "outpaces" all other channels of entertainment in regards to its self-regulatory policies on marketing and advertising products which feature mature content. The report praises the ESRB's ratings system, stating that 80 percent of M-rated games sales to minors are prevented by retailers. In addition, the report found that no ads for mature games were being run before 10 p.m., adding that the Commission found little evidence of M-rated game advertisements being targeted towards minors. The only exception? That episode of Hannah Montana where Hannah traveled back in time to 15th century Italy to become a professional assassin. Admittedly, that was kind of ethically dubious.
Shin Megami Tensei password system lets your demons make Strange Journeys
Atlus revealed a password system for its upcoming Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, through which players will be able to trade copies of their customized, leveled-up, fused demons. In addition to being able to generate your own passwords to share your awesome demons with others, Atlus will release passwords for some rare creatures.In addition, the updated box art image shows an M rating. Clearly, demon hunting is serious business, to be left to the big kids! As Siliconera notes, there are only ten DS games with M ratings, out of 1,366 total releases.
Australian attorney general refuses to support 18+ game rating
Australia has a long, sordid history when it comes to banning the sale of mature games. Titles which exceed the limits of the Office of Film and Literature Classification's MA15+ rating are refused classification, preventing them from being sold in the Land Down Under. Following such a ban on Valve's Left 4 Dead 2, the introduction of an R18+ rating has been feverishly debated by the nation's officials -- however, a South Australian attorney general named Michael Atkinson is holding up the proceedings by vehemently opposing the adoption of the mature rating. Atkinson told Australian news outlet News.com.au that he's uncomfortable with the interactive nature of the medium. "People are participating and 'acting-out' violence and criminal behaviour when they are playing a video game," he explained, later adding, "it certainly does restrict choice to a small degree, but that is the price of keeping this material from children and vulnerable adults. In my view, the small sacrifice is worth it." Rarely can governmental actions be attributed to just one person, but the OFLC's refusal to rate mature titles is a direct result of Atkinson's opposition. Remember, this is the same guy who tried to censor a public document which canvassed Australians on the issue in an attempt to better advise the nation's ratings officials. He censored the study on censorship. Consider our mind truly boggled. [Via GamesIndustry]
The Daily Grind: What are your expectations of The Secret World?
Massively was on the ground at the Penny Arcade Expo over the weekend, and one of the games we saw that really has some promise is The Secret World. It's quite a departure from the fantasy genre in MMOs, with elements of horror, mysteries and conspiracies, hidden knowledge sought by secret societies... ok, we can say no more. But it's killing us that we can't talk about it quite yet. We've seen the gameplay but Funcom will unleash unspeakable occult forces upon us, like lawyers, if we spill what we know. Of course we'll have a feature story on The Secret World up on Massively soon -- but in the meantime, we want to ask what you think about the impending arrival of horror to the MMO scene. Funcom is clearly trying to set the tone for the game with their latest trailer, which might have given us clues about the kinds of things we'll see in TSW. But as we all know, a cinematic isn't always the best representation of a game title. So do you think The Secret World will be a dark, mature title? Or will it be Cthulhu-lite? Sound off and let us know about your expectations of The Secret World!
Venezuela could completely ban the sale of violent video games
If a bill currently being reviewed by Venezuela's parliament is formally approved by the nation's president, then gamers living in the country may have (legally) purchased their last M-rated title. The "Bill for the Prohibition of Video Games and Toy Weapons" aims to completely ban the sale of violent video games (and, as you may have guessed, toy weapons) in the country. It was approved by the National Assembly yesterday, and now must be approved in one more debate and signed by the president to become a law.The bill was written out of concern for the negative effect violent video games and toys are having on the nation's youth (sigh), but was also created to prevent the use of toy weapons in real crimes. We'd scoff at this, too -- but we just watched a harrowing cinematic example of this type of criminal activity. It must be stopped!
Diablo 3 to include parental controls, region-specific gore edits
Diablo 3 designer Jay Wilson was on hand at the recent GamesCom, where he met up with Wired and frankly discussed the game's gore. He confirmed that the title would not only have parental controls, but could have a lot of its signature violence stripped for select regions. "Yeah, we're going to have to be able to turn off blood, change the color and things like that, because you can't have red blood in some regions, regions that we would very much like to sell the game in," Wilson said. Though he doesn't foresee any issue in selling the game in Germany and Australia, Blizzard will have to carefully weigh its options when it comes to a release in in China. "With our relationship with NetEase, we recently got new information about what China really wants, and it's a lengthy list. It's really hard for us to cater to. We'll try. There's no reason we wouldn't want to go there, but there is a certain point where we'd have to redo so much of the game that it's not viable anymore," Wilson explained.
Heavy Rain's David Cage to deliver keynote at GDC Europe
Administrators of the European version of the Game Developers Conference just revealed yet another keynote speaker for the event -- not at all shockingly, the speaker is Quantic Dream CEO and founder David Cage, whose company has released titles such as Omikron: The Nomad Soul and Fahrenheit (or Indigo Prophecy, as it was known in the States), and is currently hard at work on Heavy Rain. Considering said studio is based out of Paris, we suppose Cage is European enough to keynote the conference.Cage's address sounds pretty interesting -- it's titled "Writing Interactive Narrative For A Mature Audience." Considering what we've seen of Heavy Rain, he's probably the right person to deliver such a speech. However, considering what we remember of Indigo Prophecy, the first half of the speech will likely be gripping and insightful, and the second half will be nigh-incomprehensible. We fully expect to hear Illuminati conspiracy theories spoken in Esperanto. Backwards. [Image] [Via Edge Online]
RE5 producer: Mature games will sell on Wii , but need an 'X-Factor' (hint: it's 'Resident Evil')
Mature games can sell well on Wii; just ask Resident Evil 5 (and RE: The Darkside Chronicles) producer, Masachika Kawata. Speaking to VideoGamer.com, he acknowledged that it's not easy for adult-oriented titles to break out on the system, but says it's still possible given hard work and an "X-Factor."One of the roadblocks mature games face on Wii is perception, Kawta said. "People get this perception that on Nintendo Wii all there is are cutesy games. However, when you actually try to develop a game on Wii it costs you money, it's time consuming and it's not the easiest console to deal with." So, real games (i.e. ones that aren't cute) are hard to -- wait, did he just say "cutesy" games aren't games? Well, he has been around blood and gore an awful lot lately, but still."There are good [mature] games that didn't sell, obviously," Kawata admitted. "You need an X-Factor." We presume he's talking about the likes of Platinum Games' excellent MadWorld, which we have to admit probably would have sold better with the "X-Factor" that's served Capcom so well on Wii: the words "Resident Evil" in the title.
Deadly Creatures may have failed, but its tech lives on
Rainbow Studios' Deadly Creatures apparently didn't work out at retail. For whatever reason, the Wii audience just wasn't excited about a game featuring a scorpion and a tarantula having adventures and getting into fights, despite how awesome that premise is.THQ CEO Brian Farrell, however, isn't dwelling on the sales or declaring no more Wii development. He offered a surprisingly positive outlook on the situation in an interview with G4's Feed. "... we have great Wii technology there now and so we're developing other games -- stay tuned for the announcements," he said, "but we intend to leverage that great technology on the Wii in the future."Having a well-designed Wii engine is good news indeed, especially since Deadly Creatures was a pretty nice-looking game (well, actually it was disgusting, but in a technically impressive way).
Sega considering more mature Wii titles, says Overkill was 'profitable'
We loved the mother[expletive deleted] [expletive deleted] out of Sega's recent mature pair of Wii titles, House of the Dead: Overkill and MadWorld -- unfortunately, the same can't be said for the game purchasing population of the world. The two games' sales were far from stellar, but Sega isn't ready to give up on developing family unfriendly titles for Nintendo's home console.In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Sega MD of European development, Gary Dunn, explained that the company's outlook on its two grown-up outings is far from grim -- he even claimed that "House of the Dead: Overkill was a profitable title." He went on to explain, "Whilst MadWorld commercially didn't sell what we were expecting I wouldn't say it's game over for mature Wii titles from Sega." Hopefully the company's persistence will be rewarded, if only to ensure a few dozen sequels to Overkill. (Overkill 2: Superfluous Murder, Overkill 3: The Overkillinest, etc.)
Fallen Earth rated M for Mature by ESRB
Fallen Earth is the upcoming post-apocalyptic massively multiplayer online game where players will soon be carving out a living in a world ravaged by viral and nuclear armageddon. Not that we really thought a game where fending off packs of mutated anarchist bikers out in the wasteland Mad Max-style was really going to be "family-oriented entertainment", but Fallen Earth LLC has now made it official. Circatrix from the Fallen Earth team writes, "Thought you all should be the first to know that we've received our rating from the ESRB board and we're classified as an M (Mature). You'll start to see this in our ads and videos moving forward." We're glad to hear that they're not toning down the game's themes simply to reach a younger audience, and Massively will be keeping an eye on Fallen Earth as it gets closer to launch.
House of the Dead: Overkill sells 45k in February
Sega's latest (on rails) shooter -- and Guinness World Record holder -- The House of the Dead: Overkill sold 45,000 units in February, landing itself 50th place in the month's top 100 titles sold. According to data from the NPD Group (Via Edge), Overkill -- which released on February 10 -- joins other third-party Wii titles that have failed to capture attention at retail. Last year, Sega of America president Simon Jeffery said Western publishers have ignored the hardcore market focusing instead on family friendly titles, in line with the Wii's mainstream image. Sega -- who recently released MadWorld -- is prepping for a June release of The Conduit, continuing a string of Mature rated titles developed for the top-selling console. Hopefully, it will fare better on store shelves.
Oklahoma senator proposes tax incentives for devs of non-Mature games
Oklahoma offers a surprisingly accommodating atmosphere for media producers -- the state offers tax incentives for many creators of TV shows, films and commercials, provided they do said production in-state. Now, Sen. Anthony Sykes (R) is attempting to offer the same sweet deal to creators of video games, but with one small caveat -- the incentives would only apply to developers of games that garner a Teen rating or lower from the ESRB.It's a policy that's not exactly equal to somewhat similar restrictions placed on the other types incentive-earning media -- for instance, to be eligible, films and TV shows cannot contain child pornography or obscenity, meaning an R rated film or TV-MA show could ostensibly earn the incentive, while a video game adaptation of said film/show likely would not. It's not clear whether the bill will pick up enough momentum to get passed, though a similar bill was successfully adopted in neighboring state Texas.
Sega: Mature-themed games the way forward
Click for more MATURE-THEMED imagery. Sega, the company that put Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games in two million British homes, has seen the future on Wii -- and it's not minigame-shaped.Rather than follow the herd, Sega intends to aim squarely at a part of the market it feels is being neglected: mature-themed Wii games. Sega's Alan Pritchard and John Clark both hope that the company can capitalize on what they perceive as a lack of "hardcore titles" on Wii, and to be fair to Sega, they're putting their money where their mouth is, by publishing House of the Dead: Overkill, The Conduit, and MadWorld.On the subject of MadWorld, the publisher has promised that Platinum Games' bloody, stylized action game is a Wii exclusive. A small fuss was kicked up after the game was listed by the OFLC as "Multi Platform," but Sega has already reassured several sites that MadWorld isn't making eyes at other consoles.%Gallery-22964%Source: Sega on mature-themed games.Source: MadWorld a Wii exclusive [Via Sega Nerds]
MadWorld producer talks mature Wii titles, sequels, minigames
Despite having few ultra-violent titles in its library (most notably Manhunt 2 and No More Heroes), the Wii can't seem to shake its "kiddie" moniker. MadWorld producer Atsushi Inaba hopes to change that, telling play.tm, "It would be great if MadWorld can really kick off [a trend of mature titles]." He also opined that the console's hardware capacity is not a problem so long as you can "correctly communicate the concept or features of the game." Seeing as we're able to envision waggling the remote and producing lots of virtual blood, we think he might be onto something. Inaba also said that they're (gasp!) considering a sequel should the game be successful. If that's not enough of a non-surprise for you, he reminds us that there will be minigames -- known here as "Blood Bath Challenges." This is a Wii title, after all. Gallery: MadWorld
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%
Age of Conan video interview focuses on player concerns
Erling Ellingson, Funcom's Product Manager for Age of Conan, recently gave a video interview with Jon Wood from MMORPG. Wood brought some tough questions to the interview regarding the problems many players are having with the game, questions that may not have simple, clear cut answers as the footage implies. Or perhaps they're just not the answers many gamers are hoping to get. Wood's interview covered the gambit of player concerns about the game: the lack of DX 10; missing and upcoming features; and speculation about changes in mature content. Perhaps of greatest significance to the Age of Conan player base is the content drop off after level 20. On the post-20 game experience, Ellingson likened Age of Conan to being two titles in one -- a single player experience and an MMO. The introduction to the game is meant to be very detailed to draw the player into the setting, but the second part is a different experience. Some people may like the first part more than the second, he says. Also, in terms of content thinning as levels go up, he feels that this happens with most MMOs when they launch, and states that even when World of Warcraft launched, "the higher level content was relatively sparse." To remedy this, Funcom is now focused on adding higher level content, including level 80 dungeons, and Ymir's Pass -- a level 55+ zone.
Best Buy ad rerates DS games as mature
Today's Best Buy flyer has overridden the ESRB and given Final Fantasy IV, Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2 and MYST all "Mature" ratings. We have no idea how this happened, as the box images from the publishers should have the proper ratings. It's not like Best Buy's flyer design team adds the ratings to each box (and if they do, we feel bad for them). In the online version of the ad, hovering over the games with the pointer does display the proper ratings.We're amused, but just to be clear, Trauma Center is rated T for Teen, while Myst and FF IV are rated E for everyone.[Thanks MGS0LID]
