Dark Sector and ESRB’s alarming “request”
We honestly don’t know what to make out of this. Gaming Today received from Digital Extremes an email concerning the upcoming Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 title Dark Sector. Apparently, there was a “request” coming from Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) to take down Digital Extremes’ recent trailers for Dark Sector.
So as not to add any more confusion to this, here’s a part of the said email from the development studio:
We recently received a ruling from the ESRB stating that the two officially released Dark Sector gameplay montages have been deemed to contain excessive or offensive content; and to this end are not to be available for download or viewing, regardless of being placed behind an age gate.
However, the ESRB’s own recommended best practice guides for trailers and age gates is in conflict with the above mentioned request:
The online age gates must ask the age of the web user in a neutral manner and must employ reasonable steps to prevent users under the age of 17 (or 18) from changing their age to be older once they have initially been prevented access to the website… Acceptable forms of age verification include inserting an age or date of birth field on the web page where access is provided to a demo or trailer…
Digital Extremes said that this development will in no way effect the final gameplay content of Dark Sector. The guys over at Gaming Today tried to contact Dark Sector publisher D3Publisher and ESRB for comments but were unable to do so.
Via Gaming Today
We honestly don’t know what to make out of this. Gaming Today received from Digital Extremes an email concerning the upcoming Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 title Dark Sector. Apparently, there was a “request” coming from Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) to take down Digital Extremes’ recent trailers for Dark Sector.
So as not to add any more confusion to this, here’s a part of the said email from the development studio:
We recently received a ruling from the ESRB stating that the two officially released Dark Sector gameplay montages have been deemed to contain excessive or offensive content; and to this end are not to be available for download or viewing, regardless of being placed behind an age gate.
However, the ESRB’s own recommended best practice guides for trailers and age gates is in conflict with the above mentioned request:
The online age gates must ask the age of the web user in a neutral manner and must employ reasonable steps to prevent users under the age of 17 (or 18) from changing their age to be older once they have initially been prevented access to the website… Acceptable forms of age verification include inserting an age or date of birth field on the web page where access is provided to a demo or trailer…
Digital Extremes said that this development will in no way effect the final gameplay content of Dark Sector. The guys over at Gaming Today tried to contact Dark Sector publisher D3Publisher and ESRB for comments but were unable to do so.
Via Gaming Today
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