Gamasutra breaks down Nintendo ESRB ratings

Nov. 30 9:19 PM by Lynxara

Here's an interesting feature-- Gamasutra set Matt Matthews down to do some math and figure out the proportion of the various ESRB ratings in each system's game library. the results are, well... interesting! For your convenience, I'm going to pop out the Nintendo-related entries and graphics, and stash 'em behind a cut. The whole thing is worth reading if you've got a more general interest in the console wars, though.
"The relatively small number of games rated M (for "Mature") clearly identifies the two Nintendo platforms. The distinguishing feature between the two is the rating category E10+, which wasn't created until 2005, far into the life of the Game Boy Advance. Since the E10+ rating has existed for nearly the entire lifetime of the Nintendo DS, more of its games have received that rating. If one considers the E and E10+ ratings as approximately the same, then the two Nintendo handhelds exhibit very similar ratings distributions. Fewer than 1% of the games for either platform were rated M and approximately 10% received a rating of T (for "Teen"). The rest were either E or E10+."
"On both of the other platforms, the Xbox and PS2, games from the E and E10+ categories account for less than half of the game catalogs. On the GameCube over 51% of the games were rated E and 6.1% were rated E10+. This makes the GameCube appear to be more friendly for younger gamers. While only 7.5% of the GameCube catalog was rated M, that fraction represents a significantly larger proportion than found on either the Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance where M-rated games are less than 1% of the software library."
"From the beginning Nintendo has wanted to attract non-traditional gamers with its Wii hardware and software. Perhaps as a result of the manufacturer's strategy, many Wii games have been designed to appeal to -- and therefore are rated for -- a general audience. Over 82% of the Wii catalog is either rated E or E10+. Only 3.2% are rated M, less than half the rate on Nintendo's previous console, GameCube. Still, that 3.2% is significantly higher than the rates on either the Nintendo DS or the Game Boy Advance." And finally, a note about the general distribution with regard to the Nintendo systems: "With the exception of the GameCube, Nintendo platforms are all very similar in their distribution of ESRB ratings. That is, the GBA, Nintendo DS, and Wii all have about the same percentages of T-rated and M-rated games. It amusing to note that the one platform with a significantly different distribution of game ratings was also arguably the least successful."

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