In an interview, Neil Thompson, Microsoft’s regional Xbox director for the United Kingdom, says console makers have a responsibility to educate the public on the meanings of game ratings and the ability to restrict them. More »
The war between the British Board of Film Classification and the Pan-European Game Information system over UK game ratings comes to an end today, with PEGI to act as the UK’s sole age rating system. More »
The Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association rings in the new year with news of their first anti-piracy raid of 2009, in which they seized computers and more than 1,000 illegally copied games.
Hey, guess what platform exclusive games have sold over a million copies in the UK recently? Why, it’s Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit, of course.
The consultation period for the UK’s Byron Review into age ratings and the effects of videogames on children has now concluded and the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) have presented their report to the UK Government.
Responding to Dr. Tanya Byron’s findings that parents in the United Kingdom don’t seem to be familiar with the PEGI rating symbols, the Entertainment & Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) are introducing a traffic light system, reasoning that parents know that green means go, yellow means caution, and red means stop. Obviously they’ve never driven in my Atlanta suburb before, where yellow means “Go faster” and red means “Oh screw it, I’m late for pilates!”
“The world of gaming is fast moving and it is vital that we have a clear ratings system that is up to date with consumers’ needs. It has already been proven that everyone understands traffic light labelling, making it the perfect scheme for the industry to adopt.”
I suppose if the bright colours fail they can always force publishers to shape the game boxes based on the ratings, forcing parents to push them through the correct hole in order to buy them. Hit the jump for a larger version of this new, possibly but not actually parent-proof system.
Enjoying your R4 carts, Britain? I bet you are. Designed as they are to run code on a DS, many use them for homebrew, but some, obviously, also use them to pirate legitimate DS games. And it’s those folks attracting the attention of the authorities, spoiling it for everybody else. The ELSPA (Britain’s industry body) reckon that the sale of R4 (and other, similar) carts “is an infringement and an offence under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Trade Marks Act 1994″, and from here on they’ll be investigating any and all retailers stocking the units. It’s important to note that at this stage this is more of a warning than a direct threat, as they haven’t come out and called for an immediate, blanket ban, but I imagine a stern warning is all it will take for many small retailers to quit stocking them anyway.
DS: The Shocking Truth [MCV]
Most of the gaming-concerned internet (including us) ran a quote from UK’s ELSPA stating that 90% of United States DS owners were pirating games using the R4. We knew it sounded crazy, and so did the ELSPA who has denied the statement. After reiterating that they would never comment on affairs outside of the UK, the company reported that it traced the false statement back to a Singapore website where it had been lifted by The Sunday Post.
However it went down, we’re happy to hear that the world hasn’t gone crazy after all. ELSPA distances itself from DS piracy report [Games Industry via Maxconsole]
John Hillier is the manager of the UK-based The Entertainment & Leisure Software Publishers Association’s Intellectual Property Crime unit. And he just made one hell of a claim about the American piracy market for the Nintendo DS. In America it’s thought 90 percent of Nintendo DS users are playing pirated games because of R4s…takings from Nintendo DS games in the US are lower than any other console…
Seriously? Is this guy for real? Because we can’t believe that 90% of DS owners have even heard of the R4.
Chips are down for Super Mario [TheSundayPost via CVG]
