The first game to carry an age on its box was not a fighting game or a shooter. It was Dracula, a text adventure, which the British Board of Film Classification gave a 15 certificate at the end of 1986 because its author, Rod Pike, had warned his publisher that parts of it were horrific. For the next seven years a rated game was a curiosity. Then, in 1993 and 1994, a run of controversies, led by Mortal Kombat and the US Senate hearings that followed it, pushed the industry into rating everything. What came out was not one system but many. Each country built its own, and each was shaped by its own laws: in America the labels were voluntary, in Britain and Germany some ratings carried the force of law, and in Australia games that needed an adult rating could not be sold at all.
Fast facts
- First rated game: CRL’s Dracula, 15 certificate from the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), 1986
- Germany: games could be put on an “index” of material harmful to young people from the 1980s; the industry’s Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (USK) gave advisory age ratings from 1994, legally binding from 2003
- United States: Sega’s own Videogame Rating Council (1993), then the ESRB (1994), voluntary
- Britain: voluntary ELSPA labels (1994–2003), then PEGI (from 2003), with BBFC certificates required by law for some games; PEGI 12, 16 and 18 legally enforceable from 2012
- Japan: the Computer Entertainment Rating Organization (CERO), from 2002
- Australia: government classification, with no adult category for games until R18+ arrived on 1 January 2013
Britain: the law came first
Britain’s Video Recordings Act of 1984 was written for videos, but it could reach games too. Most games were exempt, Commodore User explained in December 1986, with exceptions “such as games which depict sex, sexual organs, excretory functions or violence towards animals”. Dracula, written in the first person, had the player die repeatedly and quoted Bram Stoker, so CRL took legal advice and submitted it. The magazine called it “the first case of certification in the entire twelve months the act has been in existence”, and asked the Board’s director, James Freeman, whether other games should have been submitted too. “Possibly,” he said, “but our role is limited. It is not for us to prosecute or even to hunt material down.” CRL went on to win the first 18 certificate for a game, for Jack the Ripper in 1987 (see CRL).
The industry’s own labels arrived in April 1994. The European Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) introduced four age bands, 0 to 10, 11 to 14, 15 to 17 and 18 plus, for its 60 member companies to print on their boxes. Geoff Brown, chairman of US Gold, called them “a major step forward in assisting parents to choose appropriate games for their children”. ST Format noted that the labels were not legally binding, and suspected the scheme was a way to delay a compulsory one.
So for most of the 1990s British games could carry two different marks. A reader who wrote to PC Zone in 2001 to correct the magazine’s editor put it plainly: “The ELSPA rating is advisory and voluntary. The BBFC is legally binding.” A demo of a game that ELSPA had restricted but the BBFC had not rated was therefore, he argued, “legal to distribute to any age”.
In April 2003 ELSPA’s labels gave way to PEGI, the Pan European Game Information system, used in sixteen countries and run by the Netherlands Institute for the Classification of Audiovisual Media. Its age labels are 3, 7, 12, 16 and 18, with pictograms for the content: Edge listed a spider for horror, a syringe for drugs and a clenched fist for violence. PEGI too was voluntary at first. That changed on 30 July 2012, when the Video Standards Council took over rating games in Britain under PEGI and selling a game rated 12, 16 or 18 to a younger child became a criminal offence. The ESRB entry tells the British story in more detail.
Germany: the index and the USK
Germany had a law that could restrict games before it had any ratings. Computer Gaming World explained to American readers in November 1987 that under a law first passed in 1953, works “deemed to be ‘immoral, brutalizing, inciting violence, crime, racial hatred or which glorify war’” could be put on an index. An indexed game could not be advertised or displayed, and could be sold only where minors were not allowed in. “Only 30 computer titles have been banned,” the magazine reported, “among them Activision’s River Raid”, and several games from the American publisher Microprose had been restricted too.
The publishers’ association, the VUD, set up a voluntary rating body, the USK, in 1994. Its trial run went badly. PC Player reported in July 1994 that a panel of Berlin psychologists, paid 1,000 marks a game, had passed Microprose’s war simulations at 12 but rated a peaceful economic simulation, Der Planer, 16, because younger players would not understand its economics. A year later the system was working. Amiga Joker wrote in April 1995 that the USK had been rating games for almost exactly a year, with yellow-and-white stickers, and that apart from a few early oddities, such as Monkey Island 2 being rated 12, its decisions were sound. Its ratings were still only recommendations, though; unlike the film board’s, they had no legal standing. The magazine also suspected that publishers liked the stickers for another reason: they were a weapon against importers who sold unrated games.
To reach a lower rating, or to be sold at all, publishers often changed their German releases. In September 1995 PC Player’s editors argued in print over the German Command & Conquer, whose infantry had been turned into cyborgs. In 2003, after a debate about violent games that followed the Erfurt school shooting of 2002, a new youth protection law made USK ratings part of a state-approved system with legal force.
Japan: CERO
Japan’s industry body, the Computer Entertainment Supplier’s Association, set up the Computer Entertainment Rating Organization in June 2002. Its first ratings were bands of age, the oldest being 18 and over. In 2006 it replaced them with letters: A for all ages, B for 12 and over, C for 15, D for 17 and Z for 18. Koji Aizawa of Famitsu PS2 explained to Edge readers what Z meant in practice. Shops could sell Z games only from a dedicated corner or from behind the counter, under a sign that had to be visible from 1.5 metres away, and some prefectures required buyers to show identification. Japan’s big convenience-store chains said they would not stock Z games at all. Among the first eleven Z-rated games were Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Max Payne 2.
Australia: no adult rating
In Australia games were classified by the government, not by the industry, and until 2013 the highest category a game could have was MA15+. A game judged too strong for that was refused classification and could not be sold. A reader complained to the Australian Official PlayStation 2 Magazine in January 2003 that Grand Theft Auto: Vice City had been cut “because there is no R18+ rating”, and that “in the UK and the US, the industry decides the ratings for games, but noooo, in Australia we have to do things differently by having the government decide the ratings.” In 2005 Hyper reported that Midway’s NARC had been refused classification, “in news that surprised no one”, and called for the push for an adult rating to start again. It took until 1 January 2013. The first game given the new R18+ was Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge.
North America: the industry rates itself
The American story began with Sega, whose Videogame Rating Council rated its games from the summer of 1993. After the Senate hearing of December 1993, where Mortal Kombat and Night Trap were shown, the industry set up the Entertainment Software Rating Board, whose ratings were in the shops for Christmas 1994. Its labels carry no legal force, but they matter: console makers and big retailers refused to handle Adults Only games, so an AO rating works almost like a ban. When a California law tried to restrict sales of violent games to children, the US Supreme Court struck it down in 2011, ruling that games are protected speech. The ESRB, Congressional Hearings 1993 and Mortal Kombat Controversy entries tell that story in full.
The labels today
| System | Region | Age labels |
|---|---|---|
| ESRB | North America | E (Everyone), E10+, T (Teen, 13+), M (Mature, 17+), AO (Adults Only, 18+) |
| PEGI | Europe, including Britain | 3, 7, 12, 16, 18 |
| USK | Germany | 0, 6, 12, 16, 18 |
| CERO | Japan | A, B (12+), C (15+), D (17+), Z (18+) |
| Australian Classification | Australia | G, PG, M, MA15+, R18+ |
Sources
- Commodore User, December 1986, news: CRL’s Dracula and its 15 certificate; the Video Recordings Act’s exemptions; James Freeman of the BBFC.
- ST Format issue 57, April 1994, p. 7, “Big Brother is watching you”: ELSPA’s scheme, its four age bands, its 60 members, Geoff Brown and the Video Recordings Act.
- PC Zone issue 105, August 2001, p. 34: reader’s letter on ELSPA and BBFC ratings, answering the editor, Dave Woods.
- Edge issue 144, Christmas 2004, pp. 47–49, “Classified”: Dracula as the first game with a certificate; ELSPA until 2003; PEGI from April 2003, its age bands, pictograms and voluntary status.
- UK Government press release, “New rules to better protect children from inappropriate video game content”, 27 July 2012 (web, secondary): the Video Standards Council and PEGI 12, 16 and 18 from 30 July 2012. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-rules-to-better-protect-children-from-inappropriate-video-game-content
- Computer Gaming World issue 41, November 1987, p. 18: Germany’s 1953 law and the 30 banned computer games, including River Raid.
- PC Player (Germany), July 1994, p. 134: the trial ratings and Der Planer. September 1995: the editors’ debate over the cyborgs of the German Command & Conquer and why the USK was set up.
- Amiga Joker (Germany), April 1995, p. 3, editorial: the USK after its first year; Monkey Island 2; advisory status; the VUD’s members and the importers.
- “Elisabeth Secker: Germany is a pioneer for youth protection standards”, interview with the USK’s managing director, Berlin Games Capital (web, secondary): the USK’s start in 1994 and the state-approved procedure of 2003 after the Erfurt shooting. https://www.berlin.de/gamescapital/interviews/elisabeth-secker-germany-is-a-pioneer-for-youth-protection-standards-1576434.en.php
- “Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle”, Sega Retro (database, secondary): the USK’s age labels and the end of indexing for USK-rated games in 2003. https://www.segaretro.org/Unterhaltungssoftware_Selbstkontrolle
- Computer Entertainment Rating Organization, “About CERO” (web, secondary): established June 2002. https://www.cero.gr.jp/en/publics/index/3/
- Edge issue 165, August 2006, pp. 26–27, Koji Aizawa on Japan’s new rating system: the A to Z categories, the rules for Z games and the first Z-rated titles.
- Official PlayStation 2 Magazine (Australia, Derwent Howard) issue 10, January 2003, p. 100: reader’s letter on Vice City and the missing R18+ rating.
- Hyper issue 140, June 2005, news: NARC refused classification.
- Official Xbox Magazine (Australia) issue 37, February 2005, p. 26: reader’s call for “an R18+ rating for games”.
- “Australia has its first R18+ video game”, Delimiter, 14 January 2013 (web, secondary): R18+ from 1 January 2013, MA15+ as the previous highest category, and Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge. https://delimiter.com.au/2013/01/14/australia-has-its-first-r18-video-game/
- For the American ratings, the sources given in the ESRB and Congressional Hearings 1993 entries, including Sega Visions, Computer Gaming World, Electronic Gaming Monthly and Edge issue 232, October 2011, p. 32, on the Supreme Court’s ruling.