As if Australia hasn't proved itself enough of a certification worry wort, the country's Classification Board has written to the Government “expressing concern” that iPhone game applications are being released through the iTunes store without being rated.
Apple's iPhone allows for thousands of independently developed games to be purchased, which the Classification Board's director Donald McDonald believes is cause for concern. Will somebody please think of the children?
"I recently wrote to [Commonwealth Censorship Minister Brendan O'Connor] regarding my concern that some so-called [mobile phone applications which are computer games] are not being submitted to the board for classification," McDonald told a Senate Estimates committee in Canberra this past Monday.
Much like the BBFC, the Australian Classification Board takes care of analysing content in movies and computer games and rates them appropriately by age. The ratings are G, PG, M, MA 15+ and R/X 18+. But unlike the UK ratings process, it does not allow games to have the 18+ ratings, which has recently been the reason for a temporary ban on Valve's Left 4 Dead 2.
For a double-whammy committee meeting, McDonald also took the opportunity to announce that the Classification Board had only just rated Activision-Blizzard's World of Warcraft an 'M', five years after the game had been released in Australia.
"While this is not the first online game to be classified by the board, World of Warcraft is arguably the most popular online game in the world, and the fact that it was not classified attracted industry and media interest," McDonald said. Well, yes, surely the alternative would have meant blocking the game for five years while the Board finds time to certify it?
With the iTunes store crammed with over 80,000 apps, a decision to certify games on the platform would undoubtedly be a mammoth task, even if the Australian Classification Board were to force Apple to remove them all for re-classification. It could also mean a price hike in the applications, as developers would need to pay more money to have their product analysed by the Board.
Sony recently took Apple on with the introduction of PSP Minis, but consumers found the prices for these bite-sized games were high compared to similar products on the iPhone. The reason given was that Sony decided to abide by regional classification agencies to rate each PSP Mini, thus pushing the price up. Seems like the pre-emptive move worked, if this recent news means any app backtracking from Apple.
Source: itNews
Apple's iPhone allows for thousands of independently developed games to be purchased, which the Classification Board's director Donald McDonald believes is cause for concern. Will somebody please think of the children?
"I recently wrote to [Commonwealth Censorship Minister Brendan O'Connor] regarding my concern that some so-called [mobile phone applications which are computer games] are not being submitted to the board for classification," McDonald told a Senate Estimates committee in Canberra this past Monday.
Much like the BBFC, the Australian Classification Board takes care of analysing content in movies and computer games and rates them appropriately by age. The ratings are G, PG, M, MA 15+ and R/X 18+. But unlike the UK ratings process, it does not allow games to have the 18+ ratings, which has recently been the reason for a temporary ban on Valve's Left 4 Dead 2.
For a double-whammy committee meeting, McDonald also took the opportunity to announce that the Classification Board had only just rated Activision-Blizzard's World of Warcraft an 'M', five years after the game had been released in Australia.
"While this is not the first online game to be classified by the board, World of Warcraft is arguably the most popular online game in the world, and the fact that it was not classified attracted industry and media interest," McDonald said. Well, yes, surely the alternative would have meant blocking the game for five years while the Board finds time to certify it?
With the iTunes store crammed with over 80,000 apps, a decision to certify games on the platform would undoubtedly be a mammoth task, even if the Australian Classification Board were to force Apple to remove them all for re-classification. It could also mean a price hike in the applications, as developers would need to pay more money to have their product analysed by the Board.
Sony recently took Apple on with the introduction of PSP Minis, but consumers found the prices for these bite-sized games were high compared to similar products on the iPhone. The reason given was that Sony decided to abide by regional classification agencies to rate each PSP Mini, thus pushing the price up. Seems like the pre-emptive move worked, if this recent news means any app backtracking from Apple.
Source: itNews
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Comments
Joji 22 Oct 2009 16:49
1/2
Interesting, but I think what it will end up doing is killing much of iPhone game development.
To be honest, there's no reason for an indie developer to submit their game for to such cert boards, when its going through Apple, who I'm sure will vet it themselves, the same way MS do with Live Arcade/XNA games. The whole reason such online services offer an even playing field in these regards is because of cost, and the biased nature of established government run ratings systems. We need only look at the L4D2 issue, to see how broken it can all get, when games are given to people who know nothing of games to rate, or possibly ban.
As a lot of media is going online, the centralised archaic towers of ratings boards becomes rather like a causeway, which giants now aimlessly fly, rather than jump over. Sony's ratings lark with PSP Minis, is down to Sony not wanting to self regulate the indie games themselves, like MS and Apple do. And yes, really don't see Apple going for this at all. Why pay someone to do what you can do yourself? Self policing is exactly why MS and Apple services, have thrived more than PSN. Largely, I think such action by Sony is going to kill PSP Mini development, and push most of those devs to IPhone, with its awesome 100 buck/pounds development kit price. Cost matters so much to indie devs, something ratings boards won't understand.
Regional classication for online content, makes little to no sense, in a global digital internet age, especially by third parties outside of the games industry. I'd rather the games industry stop paying these fools and policed itself, anyday. This is one thing, that stands to threaten the ratings fools in Australia especially (and elsewhere, hence the BBFC presence), because once a gamer can go online, and bypass regional ratings they don't not agree with, those ratings muppets become obsolete pen pushers with no power, and the content can be sold straight to the customers. I guess DLC content does have its perks after all. And because iPhone is a phone, its always able to access anywhere on the planet, which puts it in a very unique region free like position, as a content and communication device.
Overall, this makes it a better place for indie game developers, who can create content, submit it to Apple and watch it sell itself. The same way Apple go through podcast and audio books submitted to them, games should be treated the same way by them, by simply marking an item 'explicit' or not at all. Its a simple system and continues to work for Apple. If these ratings boards did get their way, it could be the end of iPhone development as we know it. I really don't see Apple bending over for them, when Apples system works so well. And just look at how messed up regional ratings are for DVDs etc, from country to country, with Blu Ray adding further confusion?
Better luck next time, ratings boards. iPhone and iTunes could be last bastion of creative entertainment freedom online, and on the move.
To be honest, there's no reason for an indie developer to submit their game for to such cert boards, when its going through Apple, who I'm sure will vet it themselves, the same way MS do with Live Arcade/XNA games. The whole reason such online services offer an even playing field in these regards is because of cost, and the biased nature of established government run ratings systems. We need only look at the L4D2 issue, to see how broken it can all get, when games are given to people who know nothing of games to rate, or possibly ban.
As a lot of media is going online, the centralised archaic towers of ratings boards becomes rather like a causeway, which giants now aimlessly fly, rather than jump over. Sony's ratings lark with PSP Minis, is down to Sony not wanting to self regulate the indie games themselves, like MS and Apple do. And yes, really don't see Apple going for this at all. Why pay someone to do what you can do yourself? Self policing is exactly why MS and Apple services, have thrived more than PSN. Largely, I think such action by Sony is going to kill PSP Mini development, and push most of those devs to IPhone, with its awesome 100 buck/pounds development kit price. Cost matters so much to indie devs, something ratings boards won't understand.
Regional classication for online content, makes little to no sense, in a global digital internet age, especially by third parties outside of the games industry. I'd rather the games industry stop paying these fools and policed itself, anyday. This is one thing, that stands to threaten the ratings fools in Australia especially (and elsewhere, hence the BBFC presence), because once a gamer can go online, and bypass regional ratings they don't not agree with, those ratings muppets become obsolete pen pushers with no power, and the content can be sold straight to the customers. I guess DLC content does have its perks after all. And because iPhone is a phone, its always able to access anywhere on the planet, which puts it in a very unique region free like position, as a content and communication device.
Overall, this makes it a better place for indie game developers, who can create content, submit it to Apple and watch it sell itself. The same way Apple go through podcast and audio books submitted to them, games should be treated the same way by them, by simply marking an item 'explicit' or not at all. Its a simple system and continues to work for Apple. If these ratings boards did get their way, it could be the end of iPhone development as we know it. I really don't see Apple bending over for them, when Apples system works so well. And just look at how messed up regional ratings are for DVDs etc, from country to country, with Blu Ray adding further confusion?
Better luck next time, ratings boards. iPhone and iTunes could be last bastion of creative entertainment freedom online, and on the move.
ando 27 Oct 2009 04:33
2/2
this is stupid, next thing they'll be trying to censor flash games, and then blogs, and then you wont be able to upload anything to facebook without getting the rudd government's stamp of approval.