3D Realms under fire by ESRB for using old images

While busy working on Duke Nukem Forever and Earth No More, developer 3DRealms seem to have forgotten something crucial that got them in trouble. Shacknews reports that they received a letter from the ESRB forwarded to them from the game company itself with talks over outdated ESRB images on their official website.

Included in the letter was a list of more than 30 instances of 3DRealms violating ESRB’s Terms and Conditions Agreement. Violations range from using “old pixilated” images to failure of adding content descriptors such as “Blood” and “Nudity.”

This slip up can cause Duke’s creators “temporary suspension of all ESRB rating services for any other of [the] company’s products,” or up to a hefty US$ 10,000 fine. Co-founder Scott Miller was not very happy about all this and was quoted as saying:

I think they came off like a school yard bully, rather than an industry partner. Why all the threats right off the bat? If the ESRB people know what was being said about them in underground channels, so to speak, they’d see that their antics have caused them much loss of faith as an industry leader.

Apparently, the ESRB advised the company to comply with new images within 10 days, but did not provide 3DRealms with instructions on how to resolve the problem properly. And even with just more than a week to comply, the developers were left with nothing but contact info for an ESRB representative.

Via Shacknews

While busy working on Duke Nukem Forever and Earth No More, developer 3DRealms seem to have forgotten something crucial that got them in trouble. Shacknews reports that they received a letter from the ESRB forwarded to them from the game company itself with talks over outdated ESRB images on their official website.

Included in the letter was a list of more than 30 instances of 3DRealms violating ESRB’s Terms and Conditions Agreement. Violations range from using “old pixilated” images to failure of adding content descriptors such as “Blood” and “Nudity.”

This slip up can cause Duke’s creators “temporary suspension of all ESRB rating services for any other of [the] company’s products,” or up to a hefty US$ 10,000 fine. Co-founder Scott Miller was not very happy about all this and was quoted as saying:

I think they came off like a school yard bully, rather than an industry partner. Why all the threats right off the bat? If the ESRB people know what was being said about them in underground channels, so to speak, they’d see that their antics have caused them much loss of faith as an industry leader.

Apparently, the ESRB advised the company to comply with new images within 10 days, but did not provide 3DRealms with instructions on how to resolve the problem properly. And even with just more than a week to comply, the developers were left with nothing but contact info for an ESRB representative.

Via Shacknews