Tag archive: ESRB

Mentioned during an announcement last week, the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) and CTIA Wireless Trade Association have announced a new rating system for mobile games. Identical to the rating system for consoles, mobile gaming applications will be rated on a five-point scale and tie into the letter system used for console and PC game released. Age 6 and older will be rated E for Everyone, age 10 and older rated Everyone 10+, age 13… Read More

In a partnership with the CTIA Wireless Trade Association, the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is preparing to unveil a rating system for all mobile games on Tuesday November 29 in Washington D.C. The presentation will kick off on Capitol Hill and will be hosted by ESRB President Patricia Vance and CTIA president Steve Largent. In addition, U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte and U.S. Senator Mark Pryor will also be in attendance. Similar to… Read More

UPDATE: The ESRB press office reached out and offered further explanation on how the new process will work, and this post has now been updated accordingly. The Entertainment Software Ratings Board is the U.S. video game industry's self-regulatory organization responsible for assigning age ratings to releases and ensuring that all advertising sticks to established guidelines. The industry's growth in recent years has placed a strain… Read More

Parents should be responsible for determining whether children can buy or rent violent video games, says a new survey by Gallup. The U.S. Supreme court is hearing arguments today over a 2005 California law that prohibited the sale of violent games to anyone under the age of 18. Though the law never took effect, it has been bouncing around the courts for five years. Gallup surveyed a random sample of 1,033 adults living in the United States on… Read More

Tomorrow, the U.S. Supreme Court will take on the sale of violent video games to minors, says the Wall Street Journal. The case revolves around a 2005 California law that banned the sale of violent games to anyone under the age of 18. The law never took effect because courts found it violated free-expression rights. For the last five years, it has been appealed all the way to the Supreme Court. In 2009, a federal appeals court in San Francisco… Read More

This is either a case of irony, or stupidity, but the results are the same. When Blizzard announced that it would soon be requiring forum members to display their real names in an effort to improve the sense of community on the forums, it did not go over well. Within hours there were thousands of posts protesting the decision. Within days there were tens of thousands. The idea of posting your real name struck a nerve with many, not just… Read More

No sooner did the controversial video game Manhunt 2 reach the North American market than clever gamers figured out how to remove filters blurring out some of the game's most brutal and violent content. However, the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) doesn't seem inclined to revoke the game's 17-and-older “M” rating, since the violent content was fully disclosed by developer Rockstar Studios during the… Read More