PEGI and ESRB?

[Tuomo L]

Hey, just wondering since I don't think this was addressed before. Has any of you guys who have sold your games gotten your games rated and if so, what are the process one must undergo to do so?

 

[Wavelength]

I believe the review process for the ESRB costs $2500 (it's possible they have cheaper ways to do it now; I haven't kept super up-to-date with this kind of stuff), and the only reason it's really necessary for anyone is because brick-and-mortar retailers won't sell M-rated games to minors (or AO-rated games to anyone) and therefore won't sell a non-rated game.  For these reasons, RPG Maker games tend not to get "rated" by the ESRB and I imagine the same is true for the PEGI.

I think it's a good policy, though, to state whether your game wouldn't be appropriate for grade-school children and/or teens, and what type of (if any) objectionable content is in there.

As a sidenote, you'll see some noncommercial games on fan sites state "ESRB Rating: Teen" or something like that.  Obviously they didn't actually get this rating; they're just saying they think the content would warrant a T rating.  If a commercial (or widely-released free) game tried doing this, they would get in trouble.

 

[Vox Novus]

This may be of relevance to the topic as well:

https://www.esrb.org/Index_Notloggedin.aspx?returnurl=/publishers/

 

[sabao]

Seems highly unlikely you'll be able to distribute an RM game at the scale where an official rating by either is necessary. Or is it required by law in your region? If so,

Giantbomb:

The ESRB has a fee for rating games and that fee depends on how much the game cost to develop. If the game cost more than $250,000 dollars the fee would be $4,000 dollars, if the cost of development was less than $250,000 dollars the fee would be $800.

 

[Matseb2611]

I know if you have your game available on Greenman Gaming, they tend to put a rating on it. I have a couple of games there, one is rated 16+, another is 7+. I am not sure which rating system it is. Initials state ELSPA or something, though it looks awfully similar to the PEGI system.