Just one week ago, the Pan-European Game Information age-ratings body, aka PEGI, announced some sweeping changes to the way it rates games. More specifically, new categories that will be implemented that target addictive content and paid in-game content, like loot boxes, the types of content that dominate some of the most-popular games around, like Fortnite.
“This is, in terms of scope, quantitatively speaking, probably the most significant update we’ve had in our history,” PEGI director general Dirk Bosmans said. “We noticed that our initial narrative of how these things can be approached clearly isn’t enough any more, so more needed to be done.”
However, don’t expect the Entertainment Software Rating Board, aka the ESRB, the U.S. equivalent to PEGI, to follow suit with updated ratings guidelines for the titles it oversees.
As first spotted by Eurogamer, and as part of a discussion by The Game Business, the biggest reason why the ESRB won’t follow PEGI’s lead is because it could end up being “confusing” to parents. For now, by adding labels to games, the group believes that it is the best way to handle the situation.
“ESRB’s research indicates that parents want upfront notice about features like online communications and the ability to spend real money on in-game purchases, but that it could be confusing if non-content related features influence rating category assignments,” a spokesperson said. “As such, there are currently no plans for ESRB to allow any factors outside of the content and context of a game to influence the age rating assignment.”
PEGI’s Director General Says He Might Let His Teenage Son Play Grand Theft Auto 6 Following New Ratings
PEGI’s director general anticipated the question and answered honestly.
For its part, PEGI understands the concerns and the complexity of a ratings system.
“We’re conscious of the concerns that ESRB voices. If we add this, are parents losing information?” PEGI director general Dirk Bosmans said. “You do want to inform them both about the content, and the context, of video games. But by integrating them both into an age rating, you have to be mindful that you may not be able to give all the levels of detail that you gave beforehand. This is a difficult exercise.”
That’s why PEGI did not include details about existing legacy software, because it’s something that “we want to figure out properly,” Bosmans said. It doesn’t help that some games that would fall into these new categories are constantly being updated, so things could inevitably change.
“We cannot continuously check our back catalogue,” Bosmans said. “But we’ve been tracking the presence of in-game purchases and paid random items for the last seven years, that gives us a very interesting database.”
So What Do The New PEGI Ratings Look Like?
When these changes come into effect in June, the categories that will be looked at are as follows:
-
In-app purchases
- Limited-time or limited quantity items will fall under this. It could potentially encourage developers to add in features that disable purchases, which would have their rating decreased to compensate.
-
Paid random items
- Essentially, this is loot boxes and everything related to that, like gacha or card packs.
-
Play by appointment
- This category will look at games that reward players for continually returning and punish them if they end their daily log-in streak. Battle passes could fall under this.
-
Online community
- This will mainly target games that have unrestricted communication, or those that don’t punish bad behavior.
All this will take place in June, and some of the biggest games around are already being eyeballed for which ratings they will receive under this system, including Fortnite or EA Sports FC, as well as others that we’ve not considered that could be categorized as such.
Two Decades Later And Final Fantasy 12 Still Feels Bizarrely Ahead Of Its Time
One of Final Fantasy’s most divisive entries is almost old enough to drink.
