Legal Niches

Jaffe: No Choice But to Cave In to Government Ratings

By pete_gallagher

Eat Sleep Play's outspoken David Jaffe weighed in with his thoughts on Australia's lack of an R18+ videogame rating.

IT Wire caught Jaffe's comments, which came as part of a videoconference session at the Melbourne-based Game Connect Asia conference. Jaffe, from a developer's viewpoint, doesn't think there's much that can be done when battling government bureaucracies like the Aussie Classification Board:

There's a government board and if they say it's too offensive, in that case there's no fight to fight -- it is what it is. There's not much you can do if you're making games aimed at a mature audience. We never like to cut it, but what are you going to do? You're dealing with governments.

There's absolutely an inconsistency in the consciousness about video games. The reality is people still see a lot of these things as kids' toys. It's utter BS.

Jaffe, who is taking a break from public social media and online activities such as blogging and using Twitter, doesn't think his exile has or will have any impact on sales of his games, saying, 'I've never seen anything that indicates to me that from a pure sales standpoint, it makes a lot of difference.'

Thanks Andrew

Full post as published by GamePolitics.com on December 08, 2009 (boomark / email).