ESRB Accuses Bethesda of Hiding Gore in Oblivion to Earn Teen Rating
- May 05, 2006 11:35 AM PST
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The unusually public feud between the ESRB and Oblivion developer Bethesda takes a new turn. The president of the ESRB states that Bethesda was "fully aware" that Oblivion's violent content should have been disclosed to the ESRB's ratings board. Did Bethesda hide mature content to earn a lower 'Teen' rating?
The public spat between the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) and the developer of the hit role-playing game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is going strong.
Today, the president of the ESRB, Patricia Vance, spoke with GameDaily Biz concerning the recent controversy that saw Oblivion raised from a 'Teen' rating to a 'Mature' rating.
In the interview, Vance says that "Bethesda is fully aware that [the violent and mature content] should have been disclosed to the ESRB," adding that Bethesda has "wisely chosen not to contest the rating change." Vance also chides Bethesda for their ratings submission process: "Though Bethesda may believe their submission was 'full, accurate and comprehensive,' our investigation proved otherwise," leading to what Vance described as an "inaccurate rating" for Oblivion.
The issue of nudity also came up, and Vance gives the ESRB's side of the story. "When we brought the topless female images to Bethesda Softworks' attention, they confirmed that the art file existed in a fully rendered form in the code on the game disc," though Vance notes that the nudity requires third-party software to unlock.
We contacted Bethesda for the company's reaction to Vance's comments, and a representative issued the following comment: "We stand by our previously released statement."
In that statement, released yesterday, Bethesda said that "nothing was hidden from the ratings agency" and that "no effort was made by Bethesda to lobby or influence the agency for any particular rating." On the issue of the nudity, Bethesda's statement reads "some modders have used a third party tool to hack into and modify an art archive file to make it possible to create a mesh for a partially nude (topless) female that they add into the game."
