February 18th, 2008 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Analysis & Editorial | No Comments »
According to an article in The Guardian last week, a new game rating system is developed in the UK which might influence the mobile gaming ecosystem as well.
The new legally enforceable cinema-style classification system is to be introduced for video games in an effort to keep children from playing games that are not suitable for their age. This means, just like with alcoholics, shop keepers have to make sure that children do not buy games that are not suitable for them.
The minister that is handling this topic even goes so far that he wants websites and mailings displaying violent games, not to be public. He i discussing with ISP’s to see which possibilities there are to apply some sort of filtering.
For the mobile games industry based in the UK, this means there might have to be some way to check the age of the consumer before clearing a sale. Something which might give operators a strong position in the market as they are the only ones possible to identify consumers based on their MSISDN id’s.
The full story can be read here.
