It sure is great how our friends in Britain always get their games in a timely manner. If you think it's bad now, EA would like to point out that it's likely to get worse.
In an interview with
GamesIndustry, EA U.K. Veep Keith Ramsdale throws in two cents regarding the potential changes to British law regarding game ratings. He calls the new BBFC proposal, "an extra and unnecessary layer of administration," and warns that lacking a unified European standard for content rating will "equal delays in getting games to market and into the hands of British players."
He's right, of course. In the whole of history, I can't recall a time when adding a glut of work to a bureaucracy has ever resulted in things maintaining the same brisk pace of work that government offices legendarily maintain (hah!).
And it will be a glut. A cursory glance at
PEGI (Pan-European Game Information, ratings board responsible for much of Europe and the baseline by which BBFC will determine if additional rating is necessary) finds 219 retail box releases for the home consoles with a rating of 16+ or higher, the current benchmark for BBFC involvement. Adding in games rated 12+, as the BBFC intends to do, throws in another 170 titles, an increase of over 77%. Then, when you throw in digital download services, handhelds and PC, you're going to have quite the workload on hand.
It seems likely that already beleaguered UK gamers could be waiting still longer for future titles, regardless of
how competent the BBFC thinks they are. Provided, of course, those said gamers don't rise as one and slay them all.
(via
The Escapist)
Conrad Zimmerman's blog
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Brilliant.
In this case, will it mean I, as a consumer, will see an increase in the price of games?
If 77% more games are having to be reviewed, and as such developers are paying for their game to be rated, then will the increased costs associated with placing their products on shelves mean that the cost will be passed onto consumers?
I sincerly hope not, as it seems that £30 ($59) for a new game is a fairly common benchmark already, and can go anywhere up to £49.99 ($98), if not more (just for the record, I always try and avoid such a cost where possible).
However, seeing that most of what the government are trying to do here is already in place, there might not be any greater or noticeable delay time, I bloody well hope not anyway.
I'm all for being safe and all, but you can't legislate the world because things might be better for it. Should be interesting to see how the BBFC handles that workload effectly. Sucks to be them.