A Beginner’s Guide to the ESRB

The ESRB has been in gaming news a lot lately, what with the Adults Only rating — a commercial kiss of death — it bestowed on Manhunt 2 and the recent requests to remove months-old trailers for Dark Sector. But what is the ESRB exactly, and what power does it really have? To answer those questions, I put together this beginner’s guide to the ESRB.

The ESRB (or Entertainment Software Rating Board) was created in 1994 in response to pressure from Congress and other organizations over graphic depictions of violence and sex in video games. In the early 90’s, as the graphics in video games were improving, so too were the images they sometimes presented. This led to several congressional hearings in late 1992 on violence in video games that were spearheaded by Joe Lieberman and Herb Kohl. Congress eventually mandated that the entertainment software industry had one year to create a working ratings system or the government would create on for them. After a few failed attempts by individual publishers, the industry united to send their own proposal to Congress. This proposal led to the establishment of the ESRB.

The way the ESRB rating system works is game developers submit gameplay footage of some of the most extreme elements of their game, along with a questionnaire on the game’s content and a check for the rating fee. Then a group of three specially trained raters view the footage independent of each other and decide on their rating. The raters also consider the game as a whole in their decision, such as storyline and the context of the objectionable scenes in the game. If they all agree on a rating then that’s the rating it gets. If they disagree, then more raters are called in to review the material until they decide on the appropriate rating. If a publisher wants, they can make changes to the game and resubmit it for a new rating, starting the process all over again. Once the game is ready for release, a copy is sent to the ESRB so they can make sure the materials they were sent were accurate.

The ESRB also has control over how a game is marketed. Publishers of games bearing an ESRB rating are legally required to follow the Principles and Guidelines for Responsible Advertising Practices. These are basically certain rules and restrictions concerning how a game can be promoted.

So basically, the ESRB really does have a pretty thorough process for rating games. In the case of Manhunt 2 for example, the game was given its Adults Only rating by a group of people who have rated many, many games. This tells me that whatever they saw in the footage they received from Rockstar was more graphic than any other game any of these people had seen before. And yes, they do actually have the power to regulate how a game is advertised, like in the case of the Dark Sector trailer. Once a game is submitted for a rating, the ESRB can exercise how ever much discretion they want concerning how a game is promoted. Their recent actions aren’t new procedures; just oddly timed.

Essentially, it’s kind of a Catch-22. Game publishers are stuck with having to submit their games to the ESRB or else retailers won’t carry their product. Unfortunately, after they do that, they’re essentially at the organization’s mercy when it comes to what they can and cannot do to promote their game. Such is the power of the ESRB.