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ESRB Now Enforcing Game Trailer Ratings 86
Gamasutra has the news that the ESRB is beginning to enforce rating-related audience restrictions on game trailers. D3 Publisher's trailer for Dark Sector was judged AO by the ESRB, and demanded in correspondence to the company that it be removed from the internet. Take-Two, meanwhile, has been handed a letter saying their trailer for The Darkness needs to be 'age-gated' if it is to be seen online. Update: 06/26 14:20 GMT by Z : The Gamasutra post has been updated to clarify the situation: "ESRB president Patricia Vance has responded to Gamasutra with a prepared statement that claims today's notices are routine ESRB Advertising Review Council procedure followed since 2005. According to Vance, the appearance of both publisher emails today are simply reminders that mature rated trailers must be age-gated, and that if a trailer's content is found to be in violation of the ESRB's trailer requirements, it must be removed or replaced with an edited version."
Re: This trailer? (Score:1)
No nudity, no blood spilled, one possible death. I feel so robbed...
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It's a shame they decided to go a different direction with the game. The older trailer looked more interesting.
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Its named a gameplay montage rather than a trailer. It shows several methods of killing, from neck breaks, decaps, shooting, and cutting with a weird 3 bladed weapon that apparently can also catch fire and build up a lot of static.
I can see their objection to it being used as a trailer, but as far as being game content isn't all that much more graphic than a lot of other games.
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It wanted me to download a suspicious plugin to view it though, something about MS windows media player 11, I closed the tab right around there.
Link? (Score:2)
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This feels weird to me. (Score:5, Interesting)
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And the Dark Sector trailer is definitely gory
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ESRB "Take your trailer down or age-gate it."
Publisher "No."
ESRB "Then we won't rate your game, meaning it can't be sold in stores, effectively killing any kinds of sales, have a nice day."
Basically, it boils down to strong arm tactics. ESRB has been on a witch-hunt lately. Thank god for the Indie's.
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However I would assume that if the ESRB keeps abusing its monopoly on ratings like that it's going to get some trouble later on, either publishers rejecting the syystem and forming an alternative or even the govt trying to make a federal agency instead.
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Never heard the term "age-gating" before though, but it makes
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Of course they have no actual legal power, but if publishers/websites don't comply the ESRB can refuse to rate their games, which is death for the game thanks to the cabal of retailers that are all in bed with the rich "thinkofthechildren" lobbiers.
"Yeah... I know this isn't within our legal realm, but this is such a nice game...
It would certainly be a shame if something... happened to it."
I can't say I wouldn't push the envelope if I had the power, I'm just saying that their methods are a bit shady... (if, of course, above speculation is true)
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The ESRB is focused on rating the playable content within a game and critics have always voiced that games are worse than movies because theres an interactive portion to the game. Here we have nothing more than a movie showing some graphic content thats not even live action. Even movies like Hostel only get by with an R rating and are presentable in theaters, but here we have the ESRB claiming this video can't be shown and must be removed?
That aside, it also seem
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Re:Suppose it's not a surprise, but... (Score:5, Informative)
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Remove them from the internet, eh? (Score:4, Interesting)
Besides, all they need to do is leak their trailers into some IRC & Newsgroup channels. Underground publicity is the best publicity, plus it is has plausible deniability.
Isn't the ESRB Voluntary? (Score:1)
According to the article it seems they are even going past just rating and deciding what trailers should or shouldn't be allowed:
"We recently received a ruling from the ESRB," the statement reads, "...stating that the two officially released Dark Sector gameplay montages have been deemed to contain excessi
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Not the point of ratings. (Score:5, Insightful)
What bothers me about this is that decisions are being made for us concerning what we can do and watch. It is not the place of the ESRB to say what can and cannot be on the internet. The power of the ESRB is entirely within its ratings and should be extended no further. Don't like a trailer for "Gorefest Maimkiller", slap it with AO. Congratulations, your job is finished.
I don't like that Nintendo and Sony won't allow production of AO games, but at the very least they have the right to do so. Their consoles, their rules. The internet, however, is not owned by the ESRB. There is no government sanction (nor should there be) that gives them the right to tell us what can and can't be there.
I never intended on buying Manhunt 2, and I didn't care or know about the titles in the article. I'm about 100x more likely to take interest in these if only for the fact that they're the ridiculous targets of needless censorship.
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Last time I check it was *my* console. I didn't pay a huge chunk of change for them to tell me what I can and cannot play.
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The NES hit the American market in 1985. The PlayStation in 1996.
If it hasn't dawned on you by now that AO content was never part of the deal, it never will. It may - someday - dawn on you that ultra-violence and graphic sex is an adolescent obsession and not an adult's.
The older the gaming market becomes, the more games like Manhunt 2 will be pushed into the margins.
Too much grief,
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Name one - just one - created for the unrestricted PC market.
Unfortunately, the ESRB linked their "AO" rating to porn - causing most retailers to vow never to carry those titles due to all the social and legal issues with carrying pornographic items.
The catch phrase for films like "Saw" and "Hostel" is "torture porn." It caught hold so quickly that I think it is fair to say that there i
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Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy Director's Cut available via online distribution in the US, rated AO.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, even so removed from the shelves and rereleased later with M rating.
The issue with AO is that you can't sell it, its nice that you are allowed to sell it on PC in the first place as opposed to consoles, but you still won't get into the shelfs at the big retailers, which means you can basically forget to sell any decen
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Tell that to the porno industry. That's one of the stupidest statements I've heard in months.
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I guess that means I'm still young at heart :).
Seriously, thought, reality seems to disagree with you; just look at how most mythologies and stories, both ancient and modern, are about who kills and sleeps with whom.
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Consider the qualifiers in the parent's post. "Graphic" sex isn't the same as "sex." There are plenty of stories of randy gods seducing women, but they are not graphic, in the sense that today's pornography is.
Similarly, I don't think the parent poster was saying that adults don't view pornography, just that they're not obsessed with it-
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I completely agree. From TFA, it looks like the ESRB has basically decided to ban the trailer. From the ESRBs statement:
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Does - anyone - here find it surprising that it was a Take-Two trailer that got the AO rating?
If you can answer that question - truthfully - with a "Yes," congratulations. There is a place for you at Rockstar. For how long is another question.
The Internet isn't owned by the ESR
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Based on these figures it produced $30 million dollar profit and about 100% return on investment. Seems pretty profitable to me, but then again, I'm not a movie producer.
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It's typical to allot roughly twice a movie's production budget on marketing and distribution (even setting aside "funny" Hollywood accounting). Similarly, the gross income of a movie is split with exhibitors. So with that rough rule of thumb, the production budget was $32M, marketing and distribution another $32M, for a total cost of $64M, and the studio saw $31M in their cut of the gross income.
Total, fresh from my ass back-of-the-napkin figures, but yes, the general idea is that Snakes on a Plane didn'
Whew, that was a close one! (Score:5, Funny)
Pointless (Score:1)
ESRB a censorship organization? (Score:3, Interesting)
This is really damaging news. If the ESRB is calling for the banning of what they would rate as AO material, then clearly there is a demonstratable censorial intent.
"However, the mere presence of an age gate does not permit a publisher to simply put whatever content it wishes into the trailer. All trailers must still conform to ARC's Principles and Guidelines, which prohibit the display of excessively violent content or any content likely to cause serious offense to the average consumer."
http://www.esrb.org/ratings/principles_guidlines.
As a person who makes his living making video games, I find this disturbing. You can't both say that an Adults Only rating isn't censorship, then turn around and censor trailers you don't like... or in this case, contain AO material.
Every time I've interacted with the ESRB is has been pretty benign, though publisher overreaction to potential ESRB issues is a problem. Also, hard and fast rules from the ESRB about content restrictions are basically nill, leaving creators floundering as to, for example, if flipping the bird is T or M. This is a position I may need to reconsider if active censorship is a part of their organization.
'Come on ESRB... now's the time to restore the faith. Prove to us that information is at the top of your list by crusading FOR the sale of AO and unrated materials in the US.
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The film and television producer lives with this all the time. Trailers that will reach a general audience are rated for a general audience.
"Freedom of speech" does not mean that you get to post suggestive billboards for your torture porn flick across from every schoolyard. Y
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I'm not sure you can make a blanket statement like that. Consider the subject at hand: video game marketing material. Doesn't it seem pretty likely that kids will want to consume any and all video game related material they can?
Personally I suspect the ESRB's demand to take down an AO-rated trailer has something to do with pre-existing agreements between the company, relating to its membership in ESRB, I don't really know of course, just guessing the situation is a little more complicated than might be su
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Why not ? Having to suffer through official sex education cartoons was pretty torturous, so if the combination is unhealthy, I'd say that the damage is already done :).
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It's not allowed on the internet? (Score:1)
I supported the ESRB... (Score:2)
Nice way to make "taking a stand" look like "just being assholes". Are they still mad at Rockstar for making them look bad with
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This really -was- at least partially Rockstar's fault, as they could have removed the code and 'art' necessary to make the scene, and there would have been no scandal. (Art in this case being the script for the scene, as well as any scene-specific textures and meshes, if any.) The deal with the ESRB is that the
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I think it's more like a subcontractor of the construction company, under indirect ownership of a Chilean subsidiary, put graffitti on the walls, and then, egged on by junior-level employees (but not the permanent officers of the general contractor) made it more and more explicit. Then a third guy--Steve--came by and said, "hey, that's pretty funny, but it'll have to come out before the Japanese investors"--did I mention the Japanese investors?--"come over tomorrow." But the subcontractor thought it was so
How does this differ from the MPAA? (Score:1)
I know I've seen a few "restricted" trailers (had a red background instead of a green one.)
Obviously you wouldn't expect to see a restricted trailer for a non-R movie, but anyways...
And again, all companies have to do is say "This trailer is rated RP by the ESRB for a game that is also RP by the ESRB"...
Actually, could you release a game with the o
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IMHO the problem is not that the ESRB is rating trailers, it's that it's going against the nature of the AO rating. AO means Adults Only, which means, like the name implies, that content from such a trailer or game should not be shown to underaged persons.
In this case though, the ESRB is not calling for proper enforcement of age gates, or preventing the sale of the game to minors... no, they are outright banning the content! Doesn't AO mean "appropriate for people of age", instead of "not appropriate for
Enforcement? (Score:2)
But if they do have some enforcement power to go along with their ratings - that makes them censors. If that enforcement power exists, it'd be worth taking a good close look at where they got it from.
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They can give a game an AO rating or deny the rating completly, which results in the game being unpublishable on all consoles as well as being unsellable in many retail stores. So in effect the game would be banned with only online sales on PC being the last way out.
### that makes them censors
Thats basically what they have become. Its not really their fault, but instead the fault of Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, Walmart and friends due to not allowing AO
Troubling. (Score:3, Insightful)
The funny thing is that those enforcing these ratings apparently seem to be completely oblivious as to what is readily available elsewhere on the internet.
Completely Sad (Score:1)
i heart esrb (Score:1)
This is fucking bullshit.
How is this different from movie trailers? (Score:2)
How is this different? Both are short tasters of the real thing, both real things are themselves rated; it makes sense to me that trailers should also be rated.
"Stop thinking of the children" and "this is the intarwenets a
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Helping people? (Score:1)
But lately it seems these kinds of ratings are getting out of hands, I mean, I think it's fine that parents have to approve
finally found the video (Score:1)