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ESRB Ratings Across the Consoles Charted
Gamasutra has up an analysis by Matt Matthews looking at the distribution of ESRB ratings across several generations of consoles. He makes particular note of Nintendo's efforts with the GameCube and Wii: "On the GameCube over 51% of the games were rated E and 6.1% were rated E10+. This makes the GameCube appear to be more friendly for younger gamers ... From the beginning Nintendo has wanted to attract non-traditional gamers with its Wii hardware and software. Perhaps as a result of the manufacturer's strategy, many Wii games have been designed to appeal to -- and therefore are rated for -- a general audience. Over 82% of the Wii catalog is either rated E or E10+. Only 3.2% are rated M, less than half the rate on Nintendo's previous console, GameCube. Still, that 3.2% is significantly higher than the rates on either the Nintendo DS or the Game Boy Advance." Matthews makes a few offhand comments about the analysis on the Curmudgeon Gamer site, as well.
"E" is somewhat the equivalent of "7+". Despite the "Everyone" designation the low end rating is actually "EC", Early Childhood.
In terms of why I think it mostly has to do with societal norms. There's isn't a perfectly objective way to rate content, just can't happen. As such ratings generally reflect the conceptions of the society they are in. That is to say what people would generally consider acceptable at a given level. This is also why nudity gets hit so hard in US ratings systems. The US has always had an issue with nudity (look in to the people who originally settled the US if you want to know why) as such it gets rated harsher than it might in other parts of the world.