Arkham City Gets 15 Rating in UK

[Logan Westbrook]

Arkham City Gets 15 Rating in UK

The BBFC rating reveals not only how old you need to be to buy Arkham City, but how long you could be playing it for as well.

The videogame ratings boards in the US and UK both agree that Batman: Arkham City [http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Arkham-City-Playstation-3/dp/B002I0F5M8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313070388&sr=8-1 ] is suitable for teenagers, but it seems they disagree on just how old those teens should be. The ESRB gave the game a Teen rating, but its British counterpart, the BBFC, has set the bar a little higher, by rating it a 15.

Unlike the ESRB, the BBFC doesn't go into much detail about why it has rating the game in the way it has, although it does note that the game has "strong violence," which at least gives an indication. Unlike the ESRB rating, the BBFC ratings are enforceable by law, rather than just at a store's discretion.

The rating does reveal, however that Arkham City has less than three hours of cut scenes. As Rocksteady estimate that the game is about 40 hours long, that's a lot of gliding, punching and crime-solving for gamers to sink their teeth into.

Batman: Arkham City comes out for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 on October 18th.

Source: CVG [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/314916/batman-arkham-city-gets-15-bbfc-rating/?cid=OTC-RSS&attr=CVG-News-RSS]


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[hardband]

40 HOURS?! Wow that's really long for a non-RPG! NICE!

 

[Custard_Angel]

Game with punching receives M15 rating.

...Okay

Moving on.

 

[SammiYin]

Really!?! So was Arkham Asylum

 

[CrankyStorming]

I could have sworn they stopped using BBFC ratings for new games and have gone fully towards PEGI. Well, they keep saying that's what the industry is going to do.

 

[Rawne1980]

Because in the UK it either gets a family, 15 or 18 rating.

Why would they make a whole new rating just for 1 game.

And of course the ratings are enforced by law, what would be the point of rating them if they weren't?

 

[Zac Smith]

Really!?! So was Arkham Asylum

That's what I was thinking, I was kinda expecting this seeing as it looks like it has a very similar tone to the 1st

 

[Broady Brio]

This doesn't matter to me any more as I'm now 18. A few years ago, if it was rated 18, that would've annoyed me.

 

[thenumberthirteen]

Because in the UK it either gets a family, 15 or 18 rating.

Why would they make a whole new rating just for 1 game.

And of course the ratings are enforced by law, what would be the point of rating them if they weren't?

Yeah. I mean do they even rate games 12? Either way 15 is a good rating. Of course it means if a 14 year old gets their hands on it they will go to jail for knowing too much, and the person who sold it shall be burned at the stake. How dare he subject children to Batman!

 

[Woodsey]

So...?

I don't get why AC is getting so much attention for its rating. Especially when AA was rated exactly the same.

 

[Savryc]

Most folks will just see Batman on the cover and assume it's for kiddies. I'm glad the BBFC do their job so well but I doubt it'll stop the more slack-jawed mothers of this island nation buying it for their 8-year-old.

Not that it's necessarily a bad thing but still.

 

[Rawne1980]

Yeah. I mean do they even rate games 12? Either way 15 is a good rating. Of course it means if a 14 year old gets their hands on it they will go to jail for knowing too much, and the person who sold it shall be burned at the stake. How dare he subject children to Batman!

I thought 12 was only for movies, I stand corrected.

As for your attempt at sarcasm I don't write the laws but what would be the point of rating a game if the rating didn't mean anything?

What would be the purpose?

And the rating was aimed at the violence in the game not Batman himself, i'm sure Batmans imaginary feelings have been taken into consideration and someone gave him a big hug.

Now enlighten me about the purpose of ratings if they were not to be enforced, share your wealth of knowledge you obviously have, fill the void in my understanding with your astounding insight, otherwise wind your neck in and leave out the sarcasm.

There's a good fella.

 

[thenumberthirteen]

Yeah. I mean do they even rate games 12? Either way 15 is a good rating. Of course it means if a 14 year old gets their hands on it they will go to jail for knowing too much, and the person who sold it shall be burned at the stake. How dare he subject children to Batman!

I thought 12 was only for movies, I stand corrected.

As for your attempt at sarcasm I don't write the laws but what would be the point of rating a game if the rating didn't mean anything?

What would be the purpose?

And the rating was aimed at the violence in the game not Batman himself, i'm sure Batmans imaginary feelings have been taken into consideration and someone gave him a big hug.

Now enlighten me about the purpose of ratings if they were not to be enforced, share your wealth of knowledge you obviously have, fill the void in my understanding with your astounding insight, otherwise wind your neck in and leave out the sarcasm.

There's a good fella.

They are useful as guidelines for customers and parents. Sometimes you see a film on the shelf, or at the cinema, and don't know whether it'll be suitable for your children. If you're ok with your kids hearing some bad language or drinking then it should be ok for them to see a film rated 12 or 15.

My main problem is that I work in a cinema, and if I let a 14 year old in to see a 15 film then I can lose my job and get a hefty fine.

A 10 year old can read a book about the horrific torture of the Holocaust, or harrowing tales of drug abuse, but can't go see Spiderman? Bullshit.

 

[rees263]

Now enlighten me about the purpose of ratings if they were not to be enforced, share your wealth of knowledge you obviously have, fill the void in my understanding with your astounding insight, otherwise wind your neck in and leave out the sarcasm.

A lot of the purpose of ratings is just education about the content of the game. Seeing a big 15 on the front may discourage a parent from buying it for their 10 year old, in which case the rating has done it's job.

As far as UK ratings go, it doesn't seem to be entirely consistent. A lot of my games have a BBFC 15 or 18 rating. A lot of the others receive a PEGI rating of 16. Why the games split between the two is beyond me, although it should make a lot more sense when (if?) everything starts to be PEGI. I *DO* have one game with BBFC 12 (Star Wars: The Force Unleashed), and a few PGs as well.

For Arkham City, 15 sounds about right. Arkham Asylum was 15 and I thought that was accurate so no reason to doubt this one. Of course, as a childless twenty-something, ratings don't mean a whole lot to me at the moment.

 

[James Crook]

What teh fuck? You have to be 15 in the UK to play a Batman game? What are they smoking?

 

[Dr. wonderful]

What teh fuck? You have to be 15 in the UK to play a Batman game? What are they smoking?

Well to be fair, you do beat the FUCK out of people in bones breaking ways so yeah.

 

[DirgeNovak]

Arkham Asylum was also rated 15. How is this news?

 

[ZombieGenesis]

It's a game about a psychotic murdering clown taking over a city and a psychotic muscled man in a bad spandex punching his murdering psychopathic thugs.

No shit.

 

[AmrasCalmacil]

Yeah. I mean do they even rate games 12? Either way 15 is a good rating. Of course it means if a 14 year old gets their hands on it they will go to jail for knowing too much, and the person who sold it shall be burned at the stake. How dare he subject children to Batman!

Because in the UK it either gets a family, 15 or 18 rating.

Why would they make a whole new rating just for 1 game.

And of course the ratings are enforced by law, what would be the point of rating them if they weren't?

Actually there is a 12 rating, I know for a fact because I own a copy of Mass Effect with a BBFC 12 on.

And if there's anything akin to that scene in Arkham Asylum where the guys hulked up and parts of their skin tore apart, no shit.

That was nasty.

 

[Rawne1980]

Actually there is a 12 rating, I know for a fact because I own a copy of Mass Effect with a BBFC 12 on.

I acknowledged that in my last post and agreed I was in the wrong there.

Thought the 12 rating was for movies only, I rarely look at game ratings none of my kids are gamers they prefer films so never really check ratings of games I buy for myself..

Except one that prefers learning .... I think she is the milkmans.

Hopefully she will get a high paid job and make me ... er ... I meant herself, of course ... lots of money.

mmmmm retiring young and sponging off my children .... sounds promising.