Age-Rating Mobile Games

UK game retailer GAME has partnered with MAD4Games to sell mobile games on the Game.net website…the news being that the games are going to be rated according to what age group they’re suitable for. “Mirroring the age ratings found in the traditional videogames market, all GAME purchased titles will carry an age certification, divided into four categories: 3+, 12+, 16+ and 18+. The 18 certification will be applied to titles which contain extreme violence and/or sexual content, heavy use of bad language or involve gambling, i.e. Blackjack or Poker games.”
This isn’t a bad thing — I can’t see it doing any harm — but I can’t see it doing much good, either. The issue is that parents will want to know if a game is suitable for their children to play, but lately companies have concluded that people want to try the game before they buy it anyway. If the games have a free preview that shows what they’re like, then the parents can simply check out the preview and decide whether it’s suitable, and then pass the phone to their kids to see if they actually want it.

Comments have been disabled for this post