Tighter restrictions and even adding extra taxes
And so it begins.
Hot off the heels of Joe Biden meeting with the videogame industry and President Obama asking for research into the effects of violent gaming on young minds comes two bills that have been proposed to congress.
The first comes from representative Jim Matheson with his Video Games Ratings Enforcement Act. The bill will “require ratings label on video games and to prohibit the sales and rentals of adult-rated video games to minors.” Businesses that fail to adhere to this bill were it to pass would then be fined in excess of $5,000.
The bill doesn’t sound too outlandish, considering that Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft already require that games released on their platform must be cleared through the ESRB first. The real issue would be with indie companies on the PC side, where some platforms don’t have to go through the ESRB. It should also be noted that a similar sounding bill was declared unconstitutional back in 2011, as pointed out by Joystiq.
Now it’s this other bill that could prove to be a massive headache for game makers and players alike.
Missouri representative Diane Franklin is proposing a violent videogames sales tax to counter the sale of violent games. She’s calling for a one-percent sales tax in Missouri on any game that has received a Teen, Mature, or Adult Only rating from the ESRB.
Digital Trends went to Amazon’s Best Seller list to dig up what Teen rated games could face this tax increase in Missouri and boy there are some super violent games here! You Don’t Know Jack, Forza Horizon, Dance Central 3 — Won’t someone think of the children?!
Both proposed laws are unlikely to succeed, given past attempts and especially how Diane Franklin has no clue what’s she trying to do.
House bill proposes fines on retail games without ESRB ratings, prohibition of some sales to minors [Joystiq]
Missouri proposes tax on violent video games like Dance Central 3 [Digital Trends]
