Study Finds That 'M'-Rated Games Sell Best

Gamasutra is reporting on information from a new research firm called Electronic Entertainment Design and Research, which has recently released a number of papers looking into trends in the gaming industry. One (perhaps surprising) finding: M-rated titles sell better than any other rating group. "The study, titled 'Console Intelligence Brief 2007' examines the PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360 since each consoles' release through June 1, 2007, and comprises some 219 retail and 187 downloadable games made available on the new platforms, examined by genre, ESRB rating, gross sales in the United States, MetaCritic scores, online functionalities, multiplayer capability and other core game features. Among the sample results made available, the study found that critics' favorite list and the blockbuster charts have a lot in common, with highly-rated titles selling up to five times better than titles with lower scoring reviews. Despite online connectivity being a marketing cornerstone for all new consoles, the study concluded that 45 percent of retail games are not utilizing it in any way -- 98 percent of Nintendo Wii games have no online functionality at all."

Re:No shit?

[j.sanchez1]

All pimply teenagers that want to be cool and need the latest gore and sex-laden game will buy those....

Are we still really propagating the falsehood that most gamers are "pimply teenagers"?

The gamer demographic is expanding beyond its core young male audience to include more women and older adults, and video games in general are becoming far more pervasive as the medium approaches mass market status, according to a Benchmark study released Thursday by Nielsen Entertainment's Interactive Group.

The results of the study may go along way toward diminishing the gamer geek stereotype. Among the more eye-opening statistics: nearly 40 percent of gamers are female, and nearly a quarter of gamers are over the age of 40.
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000873991 [mediaweek.com]

Re:There is a good reason.

[alvinrod]

I'm not quite sure that I completely agree with your assessment that "The best games are M." As an example, are games that are rated E or T not capable of being considered as the best? Games such as The Sims, Civilization, Super Mario Bros., Tetris, etc. are not rated M, but are considered among some of the best games of all time. If you look at IGN's Top 100 games list [ign.com] I don't think there are any games in the top 10 that would be rated as Mature. The first M-rated game I could find on the list was Metal Gear Solid which was ranked #19.

It could be possible that you enjoy FPS games, which are generally given a mature rating because they involve death and blood in most cases. It happens that the genre you prefer happens to be tagged as Mature in a vast majority of cases. An interesting question springs to mind though. If you were given an FPS game featuring the best controls, storyline, gameplay, multiplayer, graphics, and game balance (in your opinion) would it still be good if it didn't have enough violence (or other content) to warrent an M rating? If you don't enjoy FPS games, then simply apply the question to a different genre.

Re:There is a good reason.

[alvinrod]

Does a game being old somehow preclude it from being a great game or one of the best of all time? I'll agree that a bit of nostalgia may have crept into IGN's list, mostly because Super Mario Bros. is rated as the number one game of all time (I contend that Super Mario Bros. 3 is a superior game, but that's only my opinion.) but many other games have legitimate reasons for being there. Super Metroid and Legent of Zelda: OOT are regarded as the best games in their series by many and as the best game of their type by many as well. I think there's a tendency for younger games to overlook many of these games or not appreciate them today. Bioshock has been lauded as an excellent FPS (which I won't argue with much) but does it deserve to be in the top 10 of all time? I'd suggest watching this review [escapistmagazine.com] that actually takes a critical look at the game and doesn't spend the majority of the reivew lavashing praise on it.

As a personal example, I find Civilization II to be one of the most brilliant games ever designed. The fact that I can still sink hours of my life at a time into the game when it has to compete with the current generation of games speaks something of its excellence. It's not perfect, but there's not much I would change about the game if I could. There are some games like this that can't be improved upon in their gameplay aspect and updating the graphics only goes so far to enhance the experience. A game like Civilization II doesn't need new pretty graphics or anything that would normally cause a game to receive a 'mature' rating in order to be great.

It's also disingenuous to suggest that there weren't any mature games being made before than either. Metal Gear Solid received an M-rating almost a decade ago. There have also been mature themed games all the way back in the Atari [gametrailers.com] generation. A game doesn't need to have an M rating in order to do well and the concept of Mature games isn't something new either. I only bring this up, because I feel that someone would likely use it as a rebuttle.

I'm not trying to say that any of the M rated games on the list are bad either, but with the exception of Half-Life it's hard to argue that any of them should be moved significantly up the list when the games placed in front of them are some of the pinacles of gaming. Some of these games are pushing the limits of the technology we have today, but some of the other games were also pushing those limits over a decade ago. Perhaps it's possible that our culture is becoming more accepting of mature themes in video games and that's why we're seeing more of them, but adding mature themes to a game just for the sake of having them there won't make a game good.