PEGI 20 In the midst of celebrating 20 years of the PEGI ratings system at WASD x IGN,
Ian Rice, director general of the Games Rating Authority, took some time out to answer our questions
Congratulations on hitting 20. Why the need to celebrate? PEGI has established itself as a trusted age rating system over the course of two decades. PEGI ratings and other content advice provide valued and consistent information to parents, carers and players to help them make informed decisions. Over the years, the PEGI system has expanded to provide ratings
not only on console games but across an ever-increasing number of digital storefronts. We think it’s a great time to recognise both the scope and success of the system.
How does the system work in terms of what publishers are obligated to reveal and what can be self-certified ahead of a rating being decided? Every year, we rate approximately 600 games for release on physical formats. To obtain a PEGI rating for these types of games, the developer
first declares any relevant content, such as violence, horror, sex, drugs or bad language, to help us generate a provisional rating for use in advertising.
Developers must then
provide us with video footage illustrating the types of content they’ve disclosed, and this video footage will be reviewed by our examiners. After that, the
examiners will play the game itself to ensure that the video footage
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is a fair representation or whether selecting other options - for example, using different weapons, or attacking specific types of characters – might produce a different outcome that could affect the rating. Assuming the provisional rating is correct, this will then be
replaced with an official rating, meaning the game can be supplied to the public. However, if the developer has any issues with the final rating, they are free to discuss it further with us. Of course, because we talk to developers at all stages of the rating process, including before games are formally submitted, any problems can often be identified and resolved before we reach the final stage of the process. When it comes to games being released online only, the initial
rating is generated by the publisher filling in an online questionnaire provided by the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC). The Games Rating Authority checks the ratings of around 4000
online games each year. We focus our efforts on console games and the top downloads, because those are likely to be played by the greatest number of people - especially children. In our experience, around 95% of products are correctly rated
via the IARC self-rating questionnaire. But if a rating or a content description needs to be adjusted, this can be done very quickly.
How has the PEGI system evolved and how do you measure its success? The basic system – in terms of the familiar PEGI 3, 7, 12, 16 and 18 ratings – has remained consistent, as have the key content issues we focus on, such as violence, horror, sex, drugs and language. The fact it has been in place for twenty years means that it’s very well-established- especially with younger people who have grown up with it.
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