ESRB Boss Would Like To See More Adults Only Games In Market

April 11, 2012 - 12:24pm

ESRB president Patricia Vance believes that having more Adults Only games in the market would be healthier for the industry.

"You know, up to this point most people associate AO with sexual content," she explained. "We've actually assigned AO ratings for violent content as well; it's just that most of the time that product gets edited or changed in order to warrant an M rating, so you never see it in the market."

But this might change in the near future, thanks to the ongoing transition to digital distribution where retailers have no influence over the types of content consumers can get their hands on.

"It's very possible that there will be greater acceptance of an AO rating going forward," pondered the ESRB boss. "And by the way, I think that would be a good thing for the system. It's very frustrating that publishers can't release AO product, in many cases."

Comments

Age limit any way

Most retailer have an age limit of 18+ to buy M rated games, so besides the inclusion of sexual content what difference would it make ?

Also would AO games mean that we can get some realistic gore ? I'm sorry if you disagree but I liked the Soldier of Fortune games and other which displayed over-the-top violence and gore, what ever happened to that ? I remember Game Informer (yes i got tricked into subscribing)complaining over how CoD:Black Ops was in "bad taste" for showing heads popping when hit with 12ga. buckshot at point blank range. I thought that was just realistic. I mean don't you miss the crazy organs, blood splatter and gibs that went flying in half-life ? Its seems to me many games that are now rate M would have been rate T 10-15 years ago.

My Grandmother's Turd

Once, when my Grandmother was asleep, I was smoking crack and had to take a piss. I looked in the toilet and saw a leftover floater. So I pissed in the tub, grabbed the turd, ran back to my room, and ate it. For a piece of shit, it wasn't bad.

LOL

I guess they're finally starting to realize that video games aren't just toys for kids. Those of us under the age of 45 have all grown up playing games, and there are tons of gamers even older than that. There's an unbelievable opportunity for profit that the industry in Amurka and some other countries have been missing out on for years because of concerned mothers and other moral tyrants. I'm glad there's finally an ESRB official with a brain.

Funny She Says That...

...Since the games that got edited weren't done on the grounds of violence, but on the grounds of sexual content (eg, Hot Coffee). And while two games remain AO without any sexual content--Peak Entertainment Casinos and Thrill Kill--all the rest have a pretty strong trend going. Nice job for being a yes-woman, Patricia. :P

wait... what? O.o by the

wait... what? O.o by the title I thought for sure they were wanting more games to get effectively banned as that's what an AO rating means... but that makes sense, with digital distribution you don't have to worry about stores refusing to carry it... DD won't take over for a while and won't be fully in place for a long while as broad band in lots of areas doesn't exist. however as dd takes over this could work out. can't complain about games not having to bow down to the esrb and restrict what content is in them... scary to see the esrb not being complete dick heads...

You are a bit confused about

You are a bit confused about the ESRB, it was created by the game companies to rate video games and avoid any possible government involvement into the whole rating process, this helps to avoid any real ban to take place nation wide. What happens right now (and that's what she is referring to in the article) is that since most game retailers ban AO games from their stores, thinking that those games have heavy sexual content (according to her), game devs just proceed to tune down the game (removing violent and/or sexually suggestive parts) to avoid getting an AO mark. Retailers are OK in having M rated games on their shelves. With DD game devs can bypass retailers and put whatever they want into their games, ESRB would still mark them as AO but that would not make a dent in sales with a DD market in mind.

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