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Nintendo Puts Emphasis On Parental Control
Gamespot is reporting that Nintendo will allow parents to control what games can be played on the Revolution based on game ratings and other factors. From the article: "The password-protected system will let parents set which rating categories are acceptable for their children, and prevent the system from running any software outside the approved range. The system is based on the Entertainment Software Ratings Board's industry standard ratings, and each game's rating will be encoded on each Revolution disc. Nintendo says the system will be instituted on every Revolution console worldwide, presumably utilizing the local ratings system of each region."
I may just be overly pessimistic here, but I don't think Nintendo intends this feature to get used. If someone starts screaming at them that one of their "overly violent" video games caused their son to... I don't know, jump up and down on the family pet turtle... Nintendo could reply:
"How awful! We're very sorry that this violence made it through the hardware lock-out we have in place to let parents control this sort of thing. Your machine MUST be defective. Oh, wait, you WEREN'T using the lock-out? Even though we broadcast it as a feature on the front of our box, in the packaging, at initial start-up, on the instruction manual for the console, on the box of each game, and in the instruction manual for each game? Er... right. We'll let our lawyers take care of this."
Because there weren't any fun rated-E games made for the xbox?
Actually, that wasn't meant as a flame or troll. I don't have an xbox but I've heard that kind of stuff about it. I'm asking because I don't know and you said there were obvious reasons it didn't get used. Is this what you were talking about?
I can imagine this being a great way for Nintendo to attract more adult gamers without losing those who think Nintendo systems are great for families.