ESRB Content Ratings Won’t Be Coming to Mobile Apps any Time Soon
The Entertainment Software Rating Board, the same entity that made a big stink out of the likes Mortal Kombat in the early 90s and whose ratings you will find plastered on the front of video games to this day, wants to extend its reach into mobile software. Owners of the leading app market places, Google and Apple, don’t want anything to do with the notion. Both mobile giants already have their own rating systems in place for games and apps found in the Android Market and Apple App Store, and don’t see how the ESRB could improve on the system. Like the process app makers currently must undergo to launch an app in either major marketplace, the ESRB relies on a self-assesment questionnaire filled out by developers. The extra step seems superfluous, despite the recognizable rating system creating a sense of unity between console and PC games and their smartphone counterparts. If the ESRB continues to pressure mobile software retailers, we could see the familiar ‘E for Everyone’ logo plastered upon Angry Birds someday, but for now ratings will be left in the hands of Google and Apple.
[via Engadget]