ESRB planning to go mobile, wants to rate App Store games too
Pretty soon, we just might be seeing the ESRB seal of approval for games that we download from the App Store. Calls have been strong both from ESA and the ESRB to set up a ratings system for iPhone and iPod Touch games, and that was only compounded further by the Worldwide Developers Conference held by Apple last week. Never mind that Apple’s got their own ratings board for the items on the App Store – they should all fall under the ESRB umbrella.
Pretty soon, we just might be seeing the ESRB seal of approval for games that we download from the App Store. Calls have been strong both from ESA and the ESRB to set up a ratings system for iPhone and iPod Touch games, and that was only compounded further by the Worldwide Developers Conference held by Apple last week.
Never mind that Apple’s got their own ratings board for the items on the App Store – they should all fall under the ESRB umbrella.
Eliot Mizrachi of the ratings board said, “ESRB has seen increases in rating submissions each year since its founding and have rated more than 70 mobile games to date and will undoubtedly rate more in the future as the market grows.”
And no, they’re not doing this for the money. Unknown to some people, there is a cost to having that ESRB logo stamped on a game’s cover. There is money that goes out after all in looking through the code and rating the game. But Mizrachi explains:
Given our highly discounted rate for low-budget games, rating mobile games is not a financially attractive proposition. Apple’s integration of ESRB ratings into its parental controls for iPhone games would afford parents the ability to block those video games that carry and ESRB rating utilizing the same tool they are being offered to block video content that has been rated by the MPAA or carries an official TV rating. It’s about giving parents the same ability to do on the iPhone what they are being offered with other entertainment content.
These are all plans for now, however, and no concrete details as to the ESRB ratings on iPhone games have been fully confirmed.
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Via Kotaku
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