New PEGI games ratings rolling out this summer

Posted by Al Warmington on Fri 19 Jun 2009

Traffic light system to replace BBFC in time for Chrimbo, says ELSPA

One of the main recommendations to directly affect UK gaming in the Digital Britain report published this week, is the move to back the enhanced Pan European Games Information (PEGI) ratings system instead of the current BBFC / PEGI combo we now enjoy.

Despite Lord Carter’s recommendations to hand over sole responsibility to the Video Standards Council with the enhanced PEGI ratings system, it still has to pass through Parliament. Its future is made even less certain with the prospect of a general election looming overhead.

However, the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) is confident that it will be going through Parliament following the summer recess and reckons it could be made law in time for Christmas. That means we’ll be bidding to goodbye to the familiar movie style age ratings and getting PEGI’s new set of enhanced symbols instead, featuring traffic light age ratings (pictured right) along with the current set of symbols.

And you won’t actually have to wait until Christmas or Parliament’s decision to see these new ratings; games publishers are already manufacturing game boxes with the new colour-coded symbols following the Government’s thumbs up. They’ll be rolling out across Europe by the end of the summer.

The main reason for the change is to help parents get a clearer indication of what kind of games are suitable for their children. Whether adding a dash of colour to the age ratings with prevent irresponsible parents naively buying copies of GTA for their eight-year-olds is anyone’s guess.

Link: PEGI (via GamesIndustry.biz and MCV)