WALMART TO COVER UP “M” RATED GAMES
Douglas Havermore, Games Correspondent
Feb 9 2008
(updated - Kmart to censor games)
Bentonville, AR – Censorship, of course, is nothing new. Every creative form of entertainment has endured attempts to restrict its content or who can access it at some point of its existence. Over the past few years video games have taken the brunt of those restrictions. The virulence of the attacks against the industry has only grown along with its rise in popularity.
Early on the industry seemed to learn from its predecessors. With the voluntary introduction of a rating system in the 90’s, the video game industry took a proactive approach to self regulation. The hope was that this show of responsibility would help stave of the more radical proselytizers and give the industry room to breathe. Throughout the Nineties, that approach seemed to be working.
Gaming had its controversies early in its life. Titles such as “Custer’s Revenge” and “Beat ‘em and Eat ‘em” broke boundaries and outraged parents in the nascent days of the industry when they were released for the Atari 2600. Natural selection and technology changes from companies like Nintendo doomed titles of such a controversial nature to extinction. In the early part of the 1990’s though, saw a surge parental outrage, and even US Senate hearings, with the release of titles like “Night Trap” and “Mortal Kombat”.
The resulting controversies forced the industry to form the ESRB and begin to regulate their own product, hoping that they would avoid the censorship the plagued the Film and Music industry before them. For a while, that seemed to work.
The start of the new millennium saw the release of two products that would forever change that calm peace the industry had brokered.
The Sony Playstation 2 and “Grand Theft Auto III” broke new grounds for controversy and popularity. All of a sudden, the industry found itself on the defensive again, and as the decade has progressed, the vigour of the attacks seems to have only increased.
With recent controversies over titles like “Bully” and “Manhunt 2” video games have never been under such scrutiny. That focus has caused not only developers and publishers to become nervous about the content in their titles, but also retailers.
The largest retailer of all has taken new measures to try to protect its consumers from potentially controversial video games.
Much like adult magazines had in the past, Wal-Mart will soon be displaying M-rated titles with a black sleeve covering three quarters of the cover of each title. The hope is that this will prevent children from any kind of exposure to anything that might be offensive on the cover of a game.
“It is the responsibility of Wal-Mart to protect our children from potentially damaging content, such as the covers of some video games,” said a company spokesperson.
When asked why the sleeves would matter when the titles are stored behind glass, the company had no comment.
The new program is expected to be implemented later this year. There are also plans to cover T-rated titles with a more modest half sleeve.
