Just over a week ago, the pan-European Game Information Agency-rating body, aka PEGI, announced some sweeping changes to the way it rates games. More specifically, new categories will be implemented that target addictive content and paid in-game content, such as 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, the most significant update we've had in our history,” said PEGI Director General Dirk Bosman. “We noticed that our initial story of how to clearly approach these things was no longer enough, so more needed to be done.”
However, don't expect the Entertainment Software Ratings Board, aka ESRB, the US equivalent of PEGI, to follow updated rating guidelines for the titles it oversees.
As first spotted by Eurogamer , and as part of a discussion by The Game Business , the biggest reason the ESRB isn't following PEGI's lead is because it could be “confusing” for parents. For now, adding labels to games, the group believes, is the best way to handle the situation.
“The ESRB's research indicates that parents want advance notice about features such as online communication and the ability to spend real money on in-game purchases, but it can be confusing if non-content related features influence rating category assignments,” a spokesperson said. “As such, there are currently no plans for the ESRB to allow any factors outside of the content and context of the game to influence age rating assignments.”
The director general of PEGI says he may let his teenage son play Grand Theft Auto 6 following the new rating
The Director General of PEGI anticipated the question and answered honestly.
For its part, PEGI understands the concerns and complexity of the rating system.
“We're aware of the concerns the ESRB has voiced. If we add this, are parents missing out on information?” PEGI Director General Dirk Bosman said. “You want to inform them about both the content and the context of the video game. But by integrating both of those into the age rating, you have to be aware that you can't give all the details that you already gave. It's a difficult exercise.”
That's why PEGI didn't include details about existing legacy software, because that's something that “we want to figure out exactly,” Bosman said. It doesn't help that some of the games that fall into these new categories are constantly being updated, so things can inevitably change.
“We can't constantly check our back catalog,” Bosman said. “But we've been tracking the presence of in-game purchases and payment random items for the past seven years, which gives us a very interesting database.”
So what do the new PEGI ratings look like?
When these changes take effect in June, the categories to watch are as follows:
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In-App Purchases
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Limited-time or limited-quantity items fall under this. This could potentially encourage developers to add features that disable purchases, which would lower their ratings to compensate.
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Pay irregular items
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Essentially, it's loot boxes and everything related to it, like gacha or card packs.
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Play by appointment
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This category will look at games that reward players for consistently coming back and punish them if they end their daily log-in streak. War passes may fall under this.
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Online community
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This will mainly target games that have unrestricted communication or do not punish bad behavior.
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All this will happen in June, and some of the biggest games around are already blindfolded for which they will receive under this system Fortnite or EA Sports FC, as well as others that we have not considered that can be classified.
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