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Post by ghanmi on Aug 19, 2014 19:05:09 GMT -5
Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations was delayed a LOT in Europe because of this... eventually coming out AFTER Apollo Justice and then flopping (then Capcom decided all subsequent releases for the series will be from then on English-only :/ ). The reason being that a certain on-screen death ( the courtroom suicide ) warranted according to PEGI a +16 rating. Eight months later, the final retail release was the usual PEGI 12 and the English text at least was unaltered compared to the US version (Did you know btw that the US version altered the Shinshito name from the equivalent English script in the JP version, but that French/German versions still used the original?).
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famicommunist
Junior Member
That's a pretty nasty tan you have there SNES-tan.
Posts: 60
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Post by famicommunist on Aug 19, 2014 22:45:39 GMT -5
After all, you're allowed to play an M-rated game as a minor, you just can't buy them. ESRB ratings are just for laughs. Anybody can buy any game regardless of ratings. It's retailers that got it inside their heads to police the whole thing, which is probably illegal in many places, but hey, who's gonna go to court for the right of kiddies to buy violent sex games? Not true. It is up to the owners of a private business what they sell to people and who they sell it to, at least in the United States. Even if it was illegal it's still pretty funny how that would work though.
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Post by moran on Aug 20, 2014 9:38:35 GMT -5
The ESRB is there strictly for informational purposes to inform consumers and retailers to what they are purchasing and selling if they choose to use it. Its the same as the Parental Advisory warning that is put on CDs. There is no law binding anyone to adhering to anything regarding either warning. You can't refuse to sell the item to anybody if you stock them in your store, but the owners can refuse to stock and carry the items if they disagree with the rating. When I worked in retail, I would inform some parents about the games they were buying for their kids just so that they would know what they were getting and couldn't come back at us with any complaints. This was during the release of GTA 3 and Vice City and such games, so I basically just told them about it when they were clearly buying the games for a 10 year old or something.
Also, directly from the ESRB:
Is it illegal to sell or rent M (Mature) or AO (Adults Only) rated games to customers under 17 and 18 years of age respectively?
A ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2011 found that video games are a constitutionally-protected form of expression, and that laws restricting their sale or rental based upon violent content are unconstitutional.
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Post by Garamoth on Aug 20, 2014 10:21:23 GMT -5
Yeah, but Brown v. EMA is First Amendment stuff, i.e. it only applies to the State. The State cannot make any law to prevent the sale of video game to minors, but as far as I can tell, stores can make up whatever rule they want concerning age in the U.S and enforce it any way they want.
It sounds okay on paper, as if the world was full of small retailers making their own choices. However, I've read somewhere the ESRB gets a 97% compliance rate. So what it really means is that your government can't make any laws on the subject, but lobby groups and big chain stores are allowed to write and enforce any rule they feel like.
Funny how that works... that's freedom I guess.
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