Topic: R18+ Bill Passed in Australia

[Traveller]

A major step in allowing 18+ video game classification has been passed.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/30793

The Australian Senate has finally passed the R18+ rating bill for video games.

Jason Clare, Minister for Home Affairs was delighted and had the following to say on the matter, “These are important reforms over 10 years in the making. The R18+ category will inform consumers, parents and retailers about which games are not suitable for minors to play, and will prevent minors from purchasing unsuitable material. The reforms also mean that adults are able to choose what games they play within the bounds of the law.�

Now that this first major step has passed, the various states in Australia are required to pass their own complimentary legislation, as the ratings and classifications are a state issue. It is expected that if things move swiftly in this area, the law could be enacted before or on the projected completion date of January 1, 2013.

[TurdFurgy]

Congratulations!

[ShyGuy]

Get out of mah life, guvment!

[TJ Spyke]

Kinda sucks that Australia can choose to ban games, but hopefully this new rating will convince them to let more games be released there.

[NWR_insanolord]

Well an AO rating is effectively a ban in America, so it's kind of foolish to act like our ratings board doesn't have the same kind of power. It'll be interesting to see how the console makers respond to this, as the American 18+ rating, the aforementioned AO, isn't allowed on any of them.

[MegaByte]

ESRB's M is equivalent to R18+. AO is equivalent to X18+, which nobody's even considered for games, and movies with the classification are banned from sale in all Australian states.


Also, in talking with multiple devs at E3, the ACB is a huge pain because they're slow and cost more to get a game rated than all other regions combined.

[Chozo Ghost]

AO rated games are extremely rare, but they do exist.

[Ian Sane]

Australia is too small of a market to really have a major impact on game development.  No one is going to think "well we better tone this down or we'll get an 18+ rating in Australia."  They're more likely to just not bother with an Australia release than to make any changes based on that market.  That sucks for Australian gamers though.

Videogames are a target because they're a younger generation's thing.  My parents, for example, would be completely unaffected if videogame suddenly ceased to exist.  Rock 'n' Roll used to get the same flack until the kids that grew up with it became the establishment.  Hip hop gets a lot of flack because it's a generation younger than rock so the older generation won't miss it.  If it's just a "young person thing" then it can be made a scrapegoat without any concern of losing a significant chunk of the voters.

[NWR_insanolord]

There's no reason for an AO rated game to exist. It wouldn't be allowed on consoles or in stores, and those are the only places where being rated matters, so if you're going to be AO there's no real point in spending the time and money going through the rating process.

[Chozo Ghost]

There's no reason for an AO rated game to exist.

Doesn't porn make up like 60% of the internet? The demand is certainly there for AO content. The fact it can't be on consoles or in most stores certainly is a major obstacle, but with the demand for AO content being as high as it is I'm sure it can still be worth it despite the hurdles.

[UncleBob]

His point is that you only need an ESRB rating if you're going to be released on a major console or for sale at one of the major retailers that requires it (which is most of them).

Any game with AO-rated content isn't going to be allowed on major consoles *or* at most major retailers.

AO-rated content is going to be restricted to channels that don't require ESRB ratings (digital distribution being the main source).  Therefore, there's no reason to pay the ESRB to rate your game because the only places you can sell it don't require it.

[Chozo Ghost]

Oh, okay.... I understand.

But even though it might not make any sense, let me just point out that according to Wikipedia 21 AO games actually do exist. Almost all of them are for PC and/or Mac as you'd expect.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AO-rated_products