Culture

Ian Bogost: ECA Should Fight Hardware Makers' Censorship

Video game designer/scholar Ian Bogost writes on Water Cooler Games that the Entertainment Consumers Association is targeting the wrong people in the fight against game censorship, and should turn their attention to game hardware makers: [F]irst-party licensing in videogames creates another layer of censorship that makes it impossible to release Manhunt 2 on consoles, since […]

BogostVideo game designer/scholar Ian Bogost writes on Water Cooler Games that the Entertainment Consumers Association is targeting the wrong people in the fight against game censorship, and should turn their attention to game hardware makers:

[F]irst-party licensing in videogames creates another layer of censorship that makes it impossible to release Manhunt 2 on consoles, since the manufacturers refuse to license (and therefore manufacture) games at the AO rating. [Ang Lee's film] Lust, Caution may suffer from reduced distribution thanks to the NC-17, but the film will still physically play on projectors at any theater.

In response, Dennis McCauley of the ECA-owned site GamePolitics notes that even if Nintendo et al were to allow AO games, major retailers wouldn't sell them.
Strong Speech In Film And Games [Water Cooler Games]