Surprising No One, The Witcher 3 Will Be Rated Mature

[StewShearerOld]

Surprising No One, The Witcher 3 Will Be Rated Mature

The Witcher 3 has been rated Mature for "blood and gore, intense violence, nudity, strong language, strong sexual content" and "use of alcohol."

When it comes to video games, you honestly don't get much more mature than The Witcher series. Rife with sex, violence, gore, polticial intrigue and stories of morally gray people doing morally gray things, it's a franchise that pretty much revels in being for grown-up gamers. That being the case, most were probably assuming that <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/the%20witcher%203%20wild%20hunt?os=the+witcher+3+wild+hunt>The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt would receive and M for Mature ESRB rating just like the two games that came before. And as (totally expected) fate would have it, it has. Citing a long list of content charges, the Entertainment Software Rating Board has slapped The Witcher 3 with a Mature rating.

According to the game's ESRB summary, the rating derives from its inclusion of no-nos such as "blood and gore, intense violence, nudity, strong language, <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/139636-The-Witcher-3-Has-16-Hours-of-Mo-Cap-Sex-Scene-Data>strong sexual content" and, most heinous of them all, "use of alcohol." The summary would go on to describe some specific examples from the game. On the violence front, it apparently includes "slow motion decapitations" as well as "an autopsy of a torture victim" and corpses displayed in a variety of unwholesome death positions. In terms of sex meanwhile, the player will be able to "engage in sexual activity with prostitutes and female companions" during which the game will "depict females' breasts and buttocks" and audible "moaning." Gamers can also expect an abundant amount of cursing including the words "f**k," "sh*t," and "c*nt."

We'll let you mentally fill in the asterisks.

What all of this means, of course, is that The Witcher 3 will probably be exactly what fans of the franchise have come to expect. And you know what? We're happy about that! Sure, surprises can be nice too, but when your game series is already lauded and loved, there isn't really much reason to alter its tone. This is especially true when you're already working to expand on your central gameplay with <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/126045-Witcher-3-Dev-Open-World-Development-is-Very-Challenging>a new open world experience.

The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt is slated to release <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/138950-The-Witcher-3-Wild-Hunt-Delayed-To-May-2015>on May 19th for PCs, PS4 and the Xbox One.

Source: <a href=http://www.esrb.org/ratings/synopsis.jsp?Certificate=33771&Title=The%20Witcher%203%3A%20Wild%20Hunt&searchkeyword=witcher%203>ESRB


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[Jake Martinez]

Man, if they censor this or refuse to classify it in Australia (again) I am going to shit kittens. From what I read, it shouldn't run afoul of the censors here though.

Bizzare fact -
Outright pornography in a game will allow it to still be rated in Australia. So long as it's consentual, but a "fake" rape scene like the one at the start of Hotline Miami 2 will get the game banned in Australia.

Of course, you can still have this in a movie or a book. Actually in books you can write about the real thing. Not in video games though because of "reasons".

 

[vallorn]

I thought it was rated Mature because that was the age we would all be before we had computers that could meet it's minimum system requirements.

@Jake_Martinez I hope that you Aussies don't get dicked over with this one.

 

[major_chaos]

I'm not sure I would Call The Witcher "mature". M rated certainly, but playing through 2 I had the constant feeling of "damn 15 year old me would have thought the was literally the best thing ever". Geralt in particular comes across like something I would have written when I was a teen.
That said TW2 was still fun, and TW3 looks like they tightened up the combat significantly, so I'm hype even if I don't think its going to be my GOTY.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

I. Can. Not. Wait.

Thankfully it's already bought and paid for on Steam, so two mouse clicks on release day and all that gore, sex, alcohol and whatever else will be mine! Gwahahahaha. The Wild Hunt will not know what hit him/her/it (it will probably be Axii and a silver sword in all fairness).

 

[Fox12]

Mature? Eh. Graphic maybe. Über dark. It's more like that 15 year old gothy kid that sits in a corner at school, and talks about Nietzsche without actually understanding him. And listens to a lot of really bad metal.

I forgot where is was going with this. Point is, 14 year olds will love it. For its "maturity."

 

[tzimize]

I really dont understand people bashing this game because of its "maturity". I've said it before, and I'll say it again. The game itself is RATED mature because of sexual content, but thats not what MAKES it mature. The material, the people in it, the grey morals, the difficult choices and the for once, grown up romance. Is what makes it mature. If you dont like Geralt to fuck many women, dont. Its actually the players choice, so if anyone is complaining about Geralt being immature, I think that might actually be more about their own playstyle and interpretation of it...

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

It will probably receive "Refused Classification" here in Australia.

Honestly, I doubt I'll be even getting it. Witcher 2 was pretty dull, I do have hopes for that cyberpunk game they are working on.

 

[chadachada123]

See, I'm glad that Hatred got an AO rating. Because, to be honest, this (and GTA V) would also, ideally, get the same, in a world where the rating isn't a Kiss of Death. Instead, it'd be a very stern: "Seriously, don't let your kids play this. It has torture. Srsly."

 

[hazydawn]

Bought it on Steam but had to cancel because I remembered that I live in a country (Germany) where I can't be sure that it won't be censored. :/

Such maturity in this tread. Wow. so grown-up. Many adult. Wow