Entertainment Software Rating Board

"They say to the ESRB that it's a Teen rating rather than a Mature to try and sell more; you can do this just by sending them a video that doesn't show the most violent stuff and then you'll get the rating that you want rather than the rating you should get," said Remi Racine, the CEO of Wet developer A2M, according to Edge. "Maybe getting your game out at a certain rating will help that game, but it's really not going to help the industry as a whole."

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Oh, but Activision claims it's all a non-issue anyway because the ESRB rated the game M for Mature and "the rating is prominently displayed on the front and back of the packaging, as well as in all advertising."

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Thompson wrote to ESRB president Patricia Vance, "We just found gay sexual content in Bully as Jimmy Hopkins makes out with another male student. Good luck with your Teen rating now."

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"As Game Crazy's survey indicates, it's not unusual for younger kids to want to play what the older kids are playing. Parents need to understand that not all video games are intended for younger players," explained Patricia Vance, president of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), which assigns age and content ratings for computer and video games. "The ESRB ratings provide guidance about content and age-appropriateness so parents can make sure the games their kids play are suitable for their age. And if a parent wants more information than what is on the package, they can search at ESRB.org and find a game's rating summary, which provides additional detail about game content."

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"The ESRB has a reduced fee of $800 for games that have development costs under $250,000," Mizrachi said, "which would likely apply to virtually all PSP Minis." In an interview for Sunday's edition of The Washington Post (posted today), the Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime says the PSPgo might have "a fundamental concept problem in terms of 'Who's it for?' and 'What's the benefit?'"

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However, Lord Turner warned that the success of the ESRB would depend on bold political leaders, "willing to take its warning seriously and to countenance potentially unpopular responses, such as action through counter-cyclical capital requirements to slow down an unsustainable but, for as long as it lasts, thoroughly enjoyable credit and property price boom". He also cautioned that global oversight, through the International Monetary Fund, had failed in the past. "In April 2006, far from warning that the world of complex securitised credit had created dangerous risks, [an IMF report] included a paean of praise to how complex securitisation had reduced risks and increased the resilience of the system,"

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Quoting the Progress and Freedom Foundation, the report, published Aug. 31, says ESRB ratings are "in many ways the most sophisticated, descriptive, and effective ratings system devised by any major media sector in America."

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"The ESA appreciates the FCC and its important role. However, the ESRB rating system is considered by parents, family advocates, the Federal Trade Commission, and elected officials as the gold standard in providing caregivers with the information they need to make the right choices for their families," said Rich Taylor, senior vice president for communications and industry affairs, at the ESA. "Universal ratings will, in the end, only serve to confuse consumers, violate the Constitution's first amendment, and are a solution in search of a problem."

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"I would rarther that system than the ESRB," Young said.

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"We have a mission where you go cut this guy's face off and give it to somebody so he can make a boot out of it, because he wants to walk on the guy's face," said Hammock. "There is no 'corpse count' that determines whether a game is assigned a Teen or Mature rating," said ESRB spokesperson Eliot Mizrachi in an email.

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