Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

ESRB Ratings Across the Consoles Charted

Posted by Zonk on from the rated-t-for-tough-luck-gamecube dept.

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.

4 of 73 comments (clear)

  1. As Expected by thetagger · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I think nothing says the PS3 and Xbox360 are geared towards a teenager audience more than the fact that they have so many "mature" games.

    1. Re:As Expected by arodland · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Because the 13-18 crowd is the largest audience by far for "17+" games. People who are actually "mature" tend to find most of them less interesting.

  2. Re:How is boxing not violent? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    So where does it end, Jack?

    Is Hockey only intended for a mature audience because of the body checking? What about football? They literally run into each other and TACKLE one another to the ground... ON PURPOSE.

    Seriously, you people need to give this a rest.

  3. Take it a step further... by The+Barking+Dog · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ...and give us the statistics on the percentage of overall sales for a console by ESRB rating. "M" rated games may be a smaller percentage of overall games for the PS3 or Xbox 360, but I'll wager that they account for a large percentage of the overall sales.