Mobile Industry Rolls Out Game Rating System 49
alphadogg writes "Mobile telecom trade group CTIA and the Entertainment Software Rating Board will roll out a rating system for mobile applications similar to ratings on other electronic games, the groups announced Tuesday. Six mobile application storefronts will support the rating system and will roll out the ratings in the coming months, CTIA said. AT&T, Microsoft, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile USA, U.S. Cellular and Verizon Wireless are the founding members of the rating system."
An opinion piece at Gamasutra points out that this initiative falls a bit flat without Apple or Google on board, since iOS and Android are so vital to the current mobile gaming industry. "In the long run, the ESRB/CTIA announcement could be another sign of shifting power in the gaming industry. Normally, the ESRB gets what it wants. But it has no leverage against Apple and Google."
And then mobile gaming ground to a halt. (Score:5, Insightful)
Eventually people are going to want phone makers to make Ratings mandatory to get sold on app stores, and once that happens, you can say goodbye to cheap mobile games, or mobile games in general. Fees and having to wait for your game to be reviewed when hundreds of new games pop up in the review queue daily will bring mobile gaming to its knees.
Re:And then mobile gaming ground to a halt. (Score:5, Insightful)
Eventually people are going to want phone makers to make Ratings mandatory to get sold on app stores
Except the phone makers don't have much leverage themselves (with Android). It's Google's system, and it's not like the phone makers are valued clients on fat contracts. Google can afford refuse them. With iPhone, it's even less likely, given that Apple has never given a stuff what anyone thinks.
Of course, with Android, even that doesn't matter, since the Android Marketplace is just one purveyor of apps among many - albeit, the default one.
Short a legal requirement forcing them to do so, I doubt Google or Apple are going to voluntarily start requiring ratings. It's a losing move for whoever does it first, for the reasons you pointed out.
Couldn't they just use the same ESRB system? (Score:5, Insightful)
If this is just an application of the same ESRB ratings to mobile games (which is suggested with "The CTIA Mobile Application Rating System with ESRB will utilize the well-known and trusted age rating icons that ESRB assigns to computer and video games to provide parents and consumers reliable information about the age-appropriateness of applications." in the press release), then this doesn't warrant a story, as smartphones and their ilk are computers (however hobbled by their small form and bad service providers).
If they'll instead use a new set of rating categories or descriptors, then it's wasted effort, as they could've just applied the ESRB ones to these games since they're becoming more and more like computer and console games (partly because, well, smartphones are computers). In this case, it not only doesn't warrant a story but does warrant a point-and-laugh for the repetitive noobs they are.
Also, slapping A Capitalized Slogan(R) in front of your name more than once per page, as if to be part of it, is highly loathsome and annoying; and I want to physically harm whoever made "onboard" a verb.