June 16th, 2009

Britain censors the BBFC

Published at 4:05 PM PST

It seems the British are tired of their games being censored and banned...or so it would seem. Today, Britain announced that from now on the British Board of Film Classification will be doing just that, only classifying movies. Odd isn't it? I mean, don't you expect video game classifications to come from an agency that's only supposed to be for classifying movies? So how are football moms (by football, we mean British football) now going to make sure that games with titles such as "Grand Theft Auto" with guns on the cover are safe for little Jimmy? The British are going to start using the PEGI ratings system. However, it's not that simple. See the British have created an organization called the Video Standards Council. The VSC effectively has power to ban any game they feel is inappropriate, regardless of the PEGI rating. So much power that according to GI, they have the power to ban games from being sold online. Whether this power will be abused or not remains to be seen.

Source: Joystiq
Source: GamesIndustry