The Tale of Wal-Mart, Jack, and Bully

GamePolitics is reporting on something that seems like a simple decision: Wal-mart is no longer accepting pre-orders for unrated games. As a 'family-friendly' establishment, it makes a certain amount of sense. The catch is that, in the eyes of many, one of the U.S.'s largest retailers is bowing to pressure from Jack Thompson. The company denies these claims, with Kotaku running a short discussion with John Simley, Wal-mart spokesperson. From that article: "Simley says it has nothing to do with Bully, but rather is the outcome of discussions that the company has been in for 'weeks if not months' about how to handle rating pending titles. Bricks and mortars stores have never accepted pre-orders for RP titles, he added. 'I'd like to give credit to Jack Thompson, but there are a lot of Jack Thompsons out there and we are just listening to our customers,'"

Comments

Re:What's the big deal?

[Soygen]

I agree. I don't see this a big deal at all and probably has little to do with Jack(off). Wal-Mart is notorious for selling the clean/edited/lame version of everything. ;)

Re:What's the big deal?

[ZephyrXero]

The problem here is that Walmart is THE largest retailer, so if they don't carry something, there's almost half as much chance for it to be sold. Walmart generally doesn't carry anything rated over Teen, BUT it carries all the R rated, if not even Unrated DVDs for some reason..... So this makes publishers/investors less likely to put their money behind M rated games, and does affect the industry in the long run...

However, last time I checked Bully was probably only gonna get a Teen rating, but with Rockstar's past, the ESRB may just give it an R out of spite. This whole situation sickens me :(

Re:Preorder is a scam anyway

[Anonymous Coward]

This is why preorderers are typically compensated with a poster, or some other freebie (I got a free $10 link cable when I ordered Crystal Chronicles) worth the 90 day interest on your $10 deposit.

Acronyms

[posterlogo]

I wish there was a footnote when acronyms are used. This is an ongoing problem with Slashdot. What does "RP" stand for -- can someone please define it? I tried to trace the articles but that cleared up nothing.

Re:Acronyms

[illumin8]

I wish there was a footnote when acronyms are used. This is an ongoing problem with Slashdot. What does "RP" stand for -- can someone please define it? I tried to trace the articles but that cleared up nothing.

RP stands for "Rating Pending", and is the term used by the software company to indicate that the game has not yet been rated by the ESRB (Entertainment Software Ratings Board). It's pretty much the equivelant of that big "This film has not yet been rated" message you get when you're watching a film trailer of a film that's still in production or far in the future.