How Important Are Mature Videogames To The Industry?

Thanks to GamesIndustry.biz for its editorial discussing whether the market for 'Mature'-rated videogames is really that significant, following "EA CFO Warren Jenson's announcement last week that the company is working on a videogame based on Francis Ford Coppola's classic mafia movie The Godfather. The resulting game is expected to be EA's first foray into publishing M-rated... titles for several years." But the editorial argues: "Mature games, although certainly a popular theme with the stock market, are still basically a hot topic because of one franchise - namely Rockstar North's Grand Theft Auto titles." It goes on to point out: "M-rated games accounted for only 11.9 per cent of videogame sales in the USA last year in total... despite this, publishers are rushing headlong into making mature games, believing that emulating the success of Grand Theft Auto is just a splash of blood and a bucketful of swearwords away."

Comments

EA wants a piece of the pie...

[splerdu]

Sure it's only 11.9%. But if GTA accounted for 90% of that 11.9% that's a lot of sales. Fact is there aren't many popular M-rated games.

Might be better than duking it out with the hundreds of other titles.

Only 11.9 per cent?

[Kidbro]

Yeah, cos we all know that 11.9% of $35.8 billion is next to nothing.

Gamers are getting older

[fozzmeister]

Just like on TV there are kids films (for kids) there are Family Films (something for everyone), teen flics for teens, and things like The Godfather etc, so it will be natural that as the Gamer covers more and more of the age range, some games will be made that target those different areas

Re:Gamers are getting older

[raygundan]

Very true, but I suspect that "gamers get older" has very little to do with the popularity of "mature" games. ("mature" is a bit misused, here, i think...) In fact, I would go so far as to surmise that these games are most popular with teenage boys. I don't think overwhelming bloodiness is the way into the pocketbooks of actual adults, except by way of their children.

What do adults play in stupendous numbers? Bejeweled, The Sims, Myst, and Mario Kart.

You're not going to catch your parents opining over the lack of realtime 3D evisceration in their games. I will, of course, continue to get a good laugh out of the gibs in quake, though.

I don't think they're important at all.

[Mantrid]

I'm not sure that I've ever bought a game based on its rating; well perhaps in the Mortal Kombat days it was interesting to see what all the fuss was about, but those days are long past. Only how fun the game is matters, and I must confess it must look decent for me to be interested as well, but I wouldn't buy or not buy a game based on whether or not I could see a decapitation or some T&A.

'Mature' Games?

[chendo]

As most of us know, at least 90% of the internet is porn, therefore adult games would sell well- huh? Oh. Mature games. Nevermind, carry on.

M stands for ME!

[MalaclypseTheYounger]

I for one LOOK for the M rated games. I hate playing E (for Everyone), I like a little naughtiness, a little blood, a little violence, a little sexual innuendo.

If I see two similar games, and one is rated M, and one is rated T (for teen) and I have no other research to go on, I will pick the M rated one.

But whatever happened with the A-O rating? I still haven't found any games (in the US) for PS2 or GameCube (I don't have XBOX) that is rated Adults-Only... of course I haven't been frequenting the porn shops as often as I should, so maybe those stores carry them?

counter-productive

[bigbigbison]

I think it is safe to say that for the most part, the only people that buy anything based on the rating is people the rating is allegedly designed to prevent from buying it in the first place.

That is to say that the only time i really cared about ratings on anything was when I was a kid. Now certainly not all kids actively seek out the forbidden fruit, but I can't really see an adult saying "I'll buy this one because it's for mature people!"

Mature?

[thegrommit]

publishers are rushing headlong into making mature games, believing that emulating the success of Grand Theft Auto is just a splash of blood and a bucketful of swearwords away."

Since when has this been the definition of "mature"?

I don't know what's wrong with Simoniker

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know what's wrong with him, but I've just hit my limit. No more "is this the fundamental issue of the games industry" filler crap.

Doesn't he understand that on /., you can put ANYTHING up there and people will relate it back to their pet issues? Explain that a new Mario game is coming out, and everyone will discuss whether Nintendo is dying... explain that there's a GTA lawsuit, and people will discuss the necessity of mature games for the industry. On ANY topic people will criticize Duke Nukem Forever. So we might as well hear surprising nerdy games news instead.

It's like some kind of twisted high school debate club, where all the issues are the ones that fanboys most like to shout about. "Be It Resolved that mature games drive the industry."

Anyway, I've had enough over the past few months. I won't be reading this section again. The rest of Slashdot is plenty interesting.

Absolutely!

[Mongoose Disciple]

..Takes maturity on the part of the developer. Assuming an "M" rating when creating a game should be a freedom to not worry about toning down the game's flavor, not an excuse to add meaningless cursing, sexuality, and violence.

GTA and Vice City have excellent storylines and great voice acting to string together the amusing gameplay. Without the memorable characters or the hilarious radio talk shows the game loses much of its charm.

I couldn't agree more.

In a lot of ways, I think this fixation of game developers upon "mature" games is a mistake. For people not very familiar with GTA, it's easy to make the (incorrect) assumption that the game sells because of its adult content.

The truth is that GTA sells because it's a good game.

There's always going to be a market for good games of any genre, platform, maturity level, or whatever. That's the lesson game developers should be learning here.

Re:Same goes for movies

[Anonymous Coward]

yea none are in the top 20 (yet) but matrix reloaded is number 21 and passion of christ will finish in the top 10.

Also argueably some of the BEST movies of all time got and R rating. The Godfathers, Shawshank Redemption (top two movies on imdb not personal peference)

Picking posies

[clem9796]

would be a crappy theme for a game. Plain and simple. I'm a 25 year old, mentally well adjusted gamer but i'm also someone who gets very bored with things quite easily. I did however, play GTA: Vice to 99% completion. The only rated E games i play are sports games, a couple T games, but mostly M. i love driving games (True Crime, The Getaway, Driver) and it's a bonus to have good 1st person shooting in it. As i said above, a 25 year old guy playing a game where a small white kitten, named Baby, picks up posies and is timed.. sorry, but there's no way on earth you'd see someone like me playing it. Who has the money? 16-30 year olds, and they want M rated games.

Re:Picking posies

[chrismcdirty]

There are plenty of games that adults play that are rated E and T. A whole slew of Mario and Zelda games that are a blast to play and, as I recall, has no part of picking posies or a small, white kitten named Baby. Price of Persia was named game of the year for several publications, yet it was only rated T. It doesn't need excessive gore and explicit sex and language to be a fun game. All it needs is good gameplay and [sometimes] a good story to tie it all together.

I think anyone who is bent on buying M rated games has security or self-image issues. Suppose I was playing the game you had described.. and suppose it was somehow more fun than GTA. Would you still not play it? Why?

Re:Picking posies

[Gwenna]

I may be on the upper end of the 16-30 range, and I'm not a guy, but I do spend money on games (both for me and my partner) and I don't necessarily want M rated games.

What I *do* want is an interesting story line, clever game play, cool graphics, or just a plain fun game. Currently I'm playing Crystal Chronicles with my partner, and I've spent weeks at a time playing RollerCoaster Tycoon; both are terrific non-M rated games that meet the above requirements. I wasn't a big Myst fan, but I know a lot of people who spent huge amounts of time playing it and its sequels.

Maybe a game of picking posies sounds boring, but I see many people who are addicted to simple little games that are found on the web or available for one's cellphone or PDA. I'm certain someone could come up with a very addictive Posie-Picking game if they put a little thought into it.

I see the future in gaming...

[Yolegoman]

in "Optional" mature content. How many awesome games were NOT sold due to some kid's parents saying it was too violent/had too much cussing/etc?

I understand that some people want "mature" content in their video games. But make it optional. Call of Duty has the blood as an optional setting. Halo: Combat Evolved does too, at least in the pc version, albeit disguised as "texture quality".

My suggestion is to have options like so in all video games, with a few exceptions, of course. Let the end user decide if he wants the gore. Cussing, naturally, isn't as easy to censor optionally, and I see no reason to have two different meshes for all female characters... one in the bikini, the other mesh with full-length dress, that's just nonsense. ;)

Is "Mature" necessary to the video game industry? Yes and no. Yes in the sense that some gamers won't buy games unless they have "mature" content in them, but no in the sense that a game has to have "mature" content or it won't sell well.

Honestly

[g0bshiTe]

What is the point of rating a shootem up with graphic effects? As for the swearing, who gives a shite?
You can hear worse out in the streets on a daily basis. The problem is not in video game ratings, or even the content.
True if there was a game that bordered on porn, then some warning is needed for parents who ar ein the dark of what their children are playing.
As a parent myself, I will not rely solely on a label. It is my responsability as a parent to monitor the activities of my child.
This includes being the censor for music, movies, and video games. I refuse to let a label dictate what I am to let my child watch.
I have run into situations where the label said PG yet it should have been higher than that. By interacting with your child you learn more about them, especially as they get older.
That generation gap doesn't become a rift!

My point is labels don't mean anything. What one person finds offensive, another may not. And vice versa.
It isn't video games, music, or tv violence responsible for some peoples actions. It just happens sometimes.
Bad parenting, psycosis, nuerosis, who the hell knows.
But should my child shoot up her school, I surely wouldn't lay the blame where it doesn't belong.
She knows real, from pretend or play.
And she knows right from wrong.