No, they didn’t hit the brightness levels with an injunction but 2 recently released video montages of the upcoming Dark Sector video game are now verboten thanks to a request from the ESRB.

Gaming Today and Filefront.com received a request from the folks behind the game to remove the “excessive or offensive content” from our host as a measure to appease the ESRB – regardless of age protections like an age gate – a term used in the industry that prompts viewers to agree to only view the content if they are of an appropriate age. (Granted its not hard to lie to get access if you’re 13) The big question is why has the trailer (which has been publicly viewable on Filefront since December 2006 and March of this year) just now become “bad” and since when does the ESRB rate trailers for products not yet released? Here is the request as we received it:

We recently received a ruling from the ESRB stating that the two officially released Dark Sector gameplay montages have been deemed to contain excessive or offensive content; and to this end are not to be available for download or viewing, regardless of being placed behind an age gate. In order to comply with this ruling, the ESRB has requested that the two Dark Sector gameplay montages be pulled immediately upon receipt of this notice and no longer made available for view by consumers.

Please be assured that this in no way effects the final gameplay content of Dark Sector, or your ability to capture direct feed footage for distribution on your site.

We (Filefront) have of course complied because we respect the right of a publisher to pull their own content but the ESRB factor makes for an interesting twist. So all of you looking to see why will have to hunt YouTube or less responsible video services to find your answers.

I was able to view the content prior to it being removed and while the montage contains some very gory acts overall they are nothing you wouldn’t see in Gears of War – a game Dark Sector is often compared to because of its bloody action – with one exception – a scene where the character guts an enemy and runs his handheld blade up into its head finally decapitating it. However the scene is dark and not glorified. There are actually 3 clips in question it seems – two gameplay footage compilations, the second one with a voice-over version as well.

Granted, in light of the recent Manhunt 2 controversy there is increased attention being paid to the industry and its products, but this is the first instance I’m aware of where the ratings board has taken a trailer and asked the publisher to remove it. What about these trailers made it worse than an AO rating and prompted the ESRB to ask the publisher to effectively ban the public from seeing it?

Is this a sign of things to come? We are attempting to reach Dark Sector’s publisher D3 Publisher for comment but we did hear back from the ESRB’s representative to get the reasoning behind this request.  Gaming Today did also manage to find the ESRB’s recommended best practice guides for trailers and age gates (or as they call them age screens). Notice that there are provisions for even Adults Only (AO) rated trailers in this recommendation.:

BEST PRACTICES TO LIMIT ACCESS OF INAPPROPRIATE CONTENT TO CHILDREN

The following guidelines for implementing the Age Screen Rule are based on best practices recommended by the Federal Trade Commission in the context of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which in certain circumstances requires age verification before collecting information online from children.

Please adhere to the following best practices to limit access of inappropriate content to children under the age of 17 (18, in the case of Adults Only) The online age gates must ask the age of the web user in a neutral manner and must employ reasonable steps to prevent users under the age of 17 (or 18) from changing their age to be older once they have initially been prevented access to the website.

2. Acceptable forms of age verification include inserting an age or date of birth field on the web page where access is provided to a demo or trailer, or collecting credit card information in connection with a transaction prior to allowing access to the demo or trailer. When asking for a user’s age or date of birth, companies must provide either an open text field in which consumers can type their age or date of birth or a drop down bar with a full selection of age or years.

3. Allowing the user to only enter their age starting with age 17 (or 18) is not permitted. In addition, categorical age verification is not permitted. This happens when a user is asked to select one of two categories (e.g., User Under 17 or Adults) or asked whether they were born “on or before,” or “after” a certain date, leading the user to think that there’s a significant difference in what they select. Similarly, check boxes, such as “Click here if you are at least 17 years old,” are not acceptable.

4. As part of the neutral age screening process, web sites cannot mention the minimum age required for access to the demo or trailer, either on the age screen page itself or in a message appearing after age information has been submitted. Language such as “Error: You must be 17 years old or older to view” is not within the spirit of the Age-Screen Rule and is only likely to encourage a child to falsify his/her age. It is recommended that a company drop a session cookie, disable the back button, or take other reasonable measures (e.g., redirecting the user to the home page, etc.) to prevent users from clicking back and re-entering an older age.

Tech.co.uk came up with a great list of 7 things they would change with the Wii. Here are their suggestions and my comments:

1. The graphics
Compared to the PS3, Xbox and any PC less than five years old, the graphics on the Wii are fairly mediocre. Consequently, games can look pretty awful on a large television. True, the Wii has scored with Joe Public thanks to its emphasis on fun rather than graphical prowess. But give it better graphics and it would be a vastly more impressive console.
Read the full article

Bad news, PS3 owners. Looks like the Sony still hasn’t formulated any plans to release downloadable content for their system’s version of Grand Theft Auto IV. The parent company to Rockstar Games, Take Two Interactive, has just revealed its lineup of games for 2008, and there isn’t any mention of of new content for GTA IV on the PS3. Right now, it looks like only Xbox 360 owner are in for the exclusive DLC love, which might even include two extra episodes with several hours of play. On the plus side for Playstation 3 owners, Take Two also announced that their upcoming LA Noire will be a PS3-exclusive title.

So there you have it. If you have a choice, it looks like the Xbox version is the way to go at the moment. It’s surprising that Sony hasn’t worked out their own deal yet, considering this is a major title that could really influence a buyer’s decision on which console to get.

Better watch your back the next time you’re in Gamestop. Someone’s put a bounty on your head, and that someone is Sony. It seems the company has struck a deal with Gamestop to run a little contest between stores. Each month, the store manager of each district that sells the most Playstation 3’s above a certain number will receive 20,000 points which can be redeemed on a Gamestop Rewards site. That many points is worth approximately $350 in gaming goods. That sounds like a good enough incentive for a Gamestop manager to put more pressure on their customers to buy the machine.

It’s obvious Sony is having some trouble selling their $600 console, but do they really need to resort to badgering their customers? They were finally starting to show some promise when they announced a whole bunch of good looking games for later this year, and now they start in with the crazy marketing schemes that are just going to drive people insane.

Kotaku is reporting today that Sony Computer Entertainment America let go of approximately 80-100 staff members.

Brian Crescente, editor-in-chief of the gaming blog, said an internal source notified him of the layoffs as employees were asked to turn in badges and keys and leave the premises.

SCEA spokesman David Karraker said that the staff ‘alignment’ is to aid in the company’s restructuring and allow it to maintain its position in the market. Karraker told Kotaku “These restructuring efforts are currently underway and do include the streamlining of our operations and other initiatives to further strengthen the business, reduce costs and increase operational efficiency. ” When questioned about the number of employees involved the spokesman declined to mention specific figures.

The full details of the layoff are available in the Kotaku article, but this act follows a general hiring freeze at the company as well as similar layoffs at the European Sony Computer Entertainment offices a few months ago. The reasons for the restructuring are suspected to be related to the cost and sales of the recently released Sony PlayStation 3.

The worldwide downturn of SCEI and the recent departure of Ken Kutaragi in October of 2006 show a company in transition. Many speculate less than stellar sales of the high priced PS3 as well as the ongoing consumer apathy toward Blu-Ray may be contributing factors.

 

RPGamer recently sat down with Square-Enix’s PR department to discuss what future releases the company might have in store. They started by asking some questions relayed from readers, which the representatives unfortunately weren’t able to answer. But the interview on the whole was filled with both good and bad news:

Bad News:

- There are currently no plans to bring a new Front Mission game stateside.
- No idea when or if any more games are going to be released on the Virtual Console or the Playstation Store.

Good News:
- Final Fantasy Tactics A2 and the DS FFIV aare likely to come to the U.S.
- The company plans to work on games for the Xbox 360, including a new Final Fantasy MMO.
- The next Kingdom Hearts will be announced at the Tokyo Game Show in September.

Personally, I’m most looking forward to the new Kingdom Hearts. Who knew the love child of Disney and Final Fantasy could be so awesome?

First Ubisoft apologizes to Wii owners for making bad games, and now Activision is promising to ramp up their efforts for Nintendo’s white power box. In a recent conference call, Activision CEO Robert Kotick admitted that his company did not put their best foot forward for Nintendo’s last console, the Gamecube.

“[GameCube] really became a non-strategic platform for us, and most of our development effort was focused on straight ports at low costs to leverage our franchises.” Read the full article

In a recent interview with German news magazine, Spiegel, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot and European head Alain Corre admitted that the developer’s releases for the Nintendo Wii this past year have been less than stellar and promised better quality in future games. Though Ubisoft’s first offerings on the system — Rayman Raving Rabids and Red Steel — sold rather well and were actually pretty good, the rest of the games they put out on the system were mostly poor ports of older games and sold as such. Guillemot and Corre explained that they wanted to be the first to capitalized on ther Wii and sacrificed quality to that end. This can definitely be seen in some of the crud the company has released since the first Wii launch titles, such as Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Far Cry:Vengeance, and Monster 4×4. However, they both promised the company will make a much better effort in the next round of games.

I can’t recall the last time this happened; a developer is actually apologizing for making bad games. Of course, this is just a good business move, considering the majority of Ubisoft’s consumer base owns a Wii. Still though, nice to actually hear them say they plan to try harder.

In my usual late night random web searching, I came across this really interesting image. I checked out the company’s website to discover their promotion “Games for Grades” was recently launched. If you bring in a report card with an “A” you get 10% off any used game. Students are allowed to cash in up to 4 A’s per semester. The company will also donate 10% of the retail price to the student’s school. I’m sure some people will frown on this entire idea, but I love it. My dad raised me on the reward for good behavior system and it works. If a student can get an A, he deserves a reward such as discounts on gaming.

I think this promotion by Play N Trade was an excellent idea. It’s too bad this wasn’t around when I was a kid. I wonder if I brought in all my old report cards from youth if they would extend the deal to me. Probably not, but might be worth trying.

Last week we reported a number of stories surrounding the controversial flash game V-Tech Rampage. The game and its content came under fire because it depicts an amateur video game surrounding the massacre at the university campus.

The game was programmed by an Australian man and is hosted by Newgrounds, a popular flash game repository. Until now Newgrounds has been quiet and stayed out of the coverage but yesterday afternoon Ross Snyder, a Newgrounds programmer, posted a note about why the company is and will continue to host the controversial game.

“We’re a place where you can find polished, professional-quality animations and games, as well as creations that are more coarse, more personal, more “anything goes” – and everybody’s welcome. While we do have some loose content guidelines, the site is still a haven for artists that might not have anyplace else to gain exposure for their work.”

Snyder goes on to say that Newgrounds is a home for content that is often considered “edgy” and that though he personally finds the game in bad taste that the communicty members will judge the merits and they should have the opportunity to do so.

Snyder’s full statement is copied after the jump, but to read the discussion that has flourished since his post click here.

Read the full article