No one cares about game ratings in Australia, do they?
Australians do. As do international companies selling to the Australian market.
As clarification I meant: “do people in Australia care about the tiny black and white sticker on the box which says “M - rated for mature audiences” now?”
and not: “why should the global community give a damn about Australia…”.
I remember cinemas were always strict with entry into movies, but game shops never used to ask for ID. Has this changed?
Ah, that is not how your initial comment came across. Though I guess you realise that now.
I honestly don’t recall ever encountering any bars on buying video games as a kid, or even knowing that ratings existed, though it could just be because my parents bought most of my games. I think you’re right that very few people in Australia care about ratings. To me, it’s clear that ratings are almost entirely arbitrary. It’s obvious that big developers get more leeway in how their products are rated than smaller developers anyway.
What does that even do? There are little children play call of duty
This will put pressure on studios that make E and T rated games with loot boxes (for example: Fifa). Now they have to decide between letting the game get bumped up to a M rating, losing initial sales of the game, or removing loot boxes and other gambling features.
Many places won’t sell M rated games to minors without a guardian present. It also allows guardians to make better informed decisions about what they’re about to buy for their children. It may not be a silver bullet, but it might start to put some pressure on studios to think twice about putting gambling in games targeted towards children.
I can’t think of many minors who would be able to afford a game, so it’ll be the parents buying it anyway.
I could see it helping.
“I have to inform you that this game is rated M for Mature, and isn’t suitable for minors.”
“What? It’s just football, isn’t it?”
“It says this game has gambling that uses real world money.”
I don’t know how many sales it’d stop, but at least parents would know.
