Entertainment Software Rating Board

The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is a non-profit, self-regulatory body that assigns age and content ratings to consumer video games and apps in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.¹⁵¹³ Established in 1994 by the Interactive Digital Software Association — the trade group later renamed the Entertainment Software Association in 2004 — the board’s primary responsibility is to help consumers, especially parents, make informed choices about the games their families play.¹⁹¹⁵ Its ratings provide guidance in two parts: a rating category that suggests age appropriateness, and content descriptors that indicate particular elements of interest or concern.¹³

Origins

Before the ESRB, video games were unrated, and many titles contained highly violent or graphic content.¹⁵ Early flashpoints included the 1976 arcade game Death Race, in which players ran over fleeing figures, and the 1983 Atari 2600 title Custer’s Revenge, a pornographic game whose objective was to assault a Native American woman tied to a pole.⁸³ Some companies, notably Nintendo, imposed their own content guidelines, removing or censoring references to alcohol, tobacco, religion, and sexual content from games on their systems.¹⁵⁶

The decisive controversy arrived in 1992 and 1993 with a handful of violent titles. Midway’s fighting game Mortal Kombat, which used digitized actors and featured graphic “fatalities,” hit arcades in 1992 and became that year’s top arcade game.⁷²⁰ Sega’s home version retained blood and gruesome finishing moves while Nintendo’s replaced blood with sweat, and Sega’s bloodier version easily outsold Nintendo’s.²⁰ The full-motion-video game Night Trap, developed by Digital Pictures for the Sega CD with over an hour and a half of footage and a production cost of $1.5 million, drew fire for its depiction of nightgown-clad young women menaced in a slumber-party setting.⁷ A third game, Konami’s 1992 light-gun shooter Lethal Enforcers, which used digitized photographs, also drew political attention.²⁰

These games became the focus of U.S. Senate hearings led by Senators Joe Lieberman and Herb Kohl, which ran from late 1992 into 1993.⁷¹⁵ The hearings issued an ultimatum: form a workable self-regulated rating system within one year, or the federal government would implement one of its own.⁷²⁰ The threat produced a handful of competing schemes — Sega of America’s short-lived Videogame Rating Council, established in 1993 with three tiers, and the 3DO Rating System for that console, also founded in 1993.⁷ Several publishers formed the Interactive Digital Software Association in response; Sega proposed using its own council as the industry standard, but rival companies refused so as not to appear in league with a major competitor, and a neutral board, the ESRB, was established in 1994 and presented to Congress.¹⁵¹⁴ The Wikidata-linked Rating System Wiki dates the founding to September 1, 1994.¹⁴

Ratings and process

At inception the system carried five age categories: EC (Early Childhood), K-A (Kids to Adults), T (Teen), M (Mature), and AO (Adults Only), along with an RP (Rating Pending) marker used in advertising before a final rating is assigned.¹⁵¹⁶ K-A had originally been intended as “E” but trademark issues prevented use of an “E” icon; it was renamed E (Everyone) on January 1, 1998.¹⁴ A sixth category, E10+ (Everyone 10 and older), was introduced on March 2, 2005 as an intermediate step between E and T.¹⁴¹⁵ The EC rating was discontinued on March 1, 2018 owing to low usage and folded into E.¹⁴ The board added “Interactive Elements” in April 2011 to advise on online interactions, in-game purchases, and the sharing of a user’s location.¹⁴¹⁹

Ratings are assigned without the raters playing the entire game.³ Publishers assemble materials — a video reel of the most extreme and graphic content, documents listing all instances of objectionable content, and the entire game script — and submit them to the board, where full-time, anonymous raters drawn from backgrounds such as parents and educators discuss and assign a rating and content descriptors.³¹⁵ Raters are barred from ties to the video game industry to avoid bias.¹⁵ A publisher that disagrees with an initial rating may edit the game and resubmit, or appeal.¹⁵ Content descriptors number in the dozens and range from “Cartoon Violence” and “Comic Mischief” to “Blood and Gore,” “Strong Sexual Content,” and “Real Gambling”.¹⁶

The three major console manufacturers — Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft — do not permit AO-rated games on their systems, and most retailers will not stock unrated or AO titles, so studios generally avoid that rating.¹⁵ Nintendo states explicitly that it does not sell or license games carrying the AO rating.¹⁸ Because the ESRB is not federally mandated, publishers are not legally required to use it, but the retail and platform requirements make submission effectively unavoidable for major releases; fees can run upward of $10,000, and indie developers releasing only on digital platforms such as Steam may forgo a rating.¹⁵

Enforcement and controversy

The board’s enforcement powers were tested in 2005 by the “Hot Coffee” episode involving Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, in which a sexually explicit mini-game hidden in the code was unlocked by a publicly released modification.¹⁵ The ESRB re-rated the game from M to AO, most major U.S. retailers pulled it from shelves, and publisher Rockstar Games settled numerous class-action suits.¹⁵ In a June 14, 2006 written statement to the U.S. House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection, board president Patricia E. Vance defended the response and noted that the ESRB could impose fines of up to $1 million for the most serious infractions, such as failing to disclose pertinent content, and could suspend rating services.³ The Federal Trade Commission had found the rating system generally worked well, though undisclosed content remained a concern.³

Ratings changes also followed The Punisher, which received an AO rating for extreme violence before being edited down to M.¹⁵ The ESRB describes its system as widely adopted by publishers, supported by retailers, and regularly used by parents.¹⁹

The board belongs to the International Age Rating Coalition, and storefronts including the Nintendo eShop, the Windows Store, the Epic Games Store, and Fortnite have deployed the IARC system for digitally delivered games and apps.¹⁴²² In Mexico, physical releases since May 27, 2021 carry ratings from the General Directorate of Radio, Television and Cinematography, while ESRB ratings remain in use on digital storefronts.¹⁴ Beyond ratings, the ESRB enforces industry-adopted advertising guidelines through its Advertising Review Council and operates the Privacy Certified program for online and mobile privacy practices.¹⁷¹⁹

A Review of the ESRB Rating Systemdadsontech