esrb Archive

  • Switzerland approaches complete ban on violent video games

    Switzerland approaches complete ban on violent video games

    Posted on March 22, 2010 | No Comments
    That's funny, not one hour ago I mentioned that Australia had embraced the idea that adults have the capacity to make decisions vis-à-vis buying violent video games. Good ol' Switzerland, though, the darling of Europe, has passed a law essentially outlawing violent video games. I'd feign, well, not anger, but something, but it's Switzerland: how can you get mad at those guys?

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  • Will Australians finally be able to buy video games for a change?

    Will Australians finally be able to buy video games for a change?

    Posted on March 22, 2010 | No Comments
    What do I know about Australia? Not much—I know Jim Jeffries is from there. In recent years, Australia to me has always been associated with weird censorship and video games being banned left and right. Those days may soon be behind us, as Australia seems to be inching closer toward an R18+ rating for video games. That would mean that, instead of outright banning violent games, they could only be sold to adults. Pretty shocking that it has taken until 2010 for that to be the case, but what are you gonna do?

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  • Yet another game, CrimeCraft, refused classification in Australia

    Yet another game, CrimeCraft, refused classification in Australia

    Posted on December 1, 2009 | No Comments
    There's almost a comedy about this next story: Australia has banned another video game because it's too violent. (What is it with Australia and banning violent video games?) The game is CrimeCraft, and it has been refused classification by the ratings board down there.

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  • Do video game publishers misrepresent their games in order to get lower ratings?

    Do video game publishers misrepresent their games in order to get lower ratings?

    Posted on November 18, 2009 | No Comments
    There's some sort of video game developer conference going on in Motreal this week (titled, to use its full name, the Montreal International Game Summit), and an interesting charge was just levied there. The CEO of A2M (the company that developed Wet), Rémi Racine, said that some game publishers will go out of their way to deceive the ESRB in order to get a lower rating for their games. You know how Hollywood tries hard to make sure the summer blockbusters are rated no higher than PG-13 in order to ensure a large audience? Same thing with video games, apparently. Why release an M-rated game, and know that your limiting your potential audience, when you can eek out with a T rating?

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