As always, the
Nintendo platform stands out for its selection of games appropriate
for nearly all gamers.
From the
beginning Nintendo has wanted to attract non-traditional gamers with
its Wii hardware and software. Perhaps as a result of the
manufacturer's strategy, many Wii games have been designed to appeal
to -- and therefore are rated for -- a general audience. Over 82% of
the Wii catalog is either rated E or E10+. Only 3.2% are rated M,
less than half the rate on Nintendo's previous console, GameCube.
Still, that 3.2% is significantly higher than the rates on either the
Nintendo DS or the Game Boy Advance.
Microsoft has
announced its goal to court more casual gamers with games like Viva
Piñata and Scene It! The distribution of ESRB
ratings on the Xbox 360 is suggestive of just such a shift.
At this point in
its life, over 54% of the Xbox 360 library is rated E or E10+.
Compare this with less than 42% for those same categories of games on
the original Xbox. It is also possible that some games which might
have been rated T prior to 2005 are now being given the new E10+
rating. The class of M-rated games accounts for 17.6% of the Xbox 360
library, which is quite similar to the 19.2% of M-rated games on the
original Xbox.
Finally, the
PlayStation 3 has a distribution that is markedly similar to that of
the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable.
Almost exactly
47.2% of the individual libraries of the PlayStation 2 and the
PlayStation 3 are rated E or E10+. Games rated T account for nearly
32% of the PlayStation 3 library compared to 38% on the PlayStation
2. The M rated games are a significant portion of the software on the
PlayStation 3 currently: 21%, up from 14.8% on the PlayStation 2. No
other platform, studied here has as high a ratio of M-rated games as
the PlayStation 3. The two platforms with comparable numbers of
M-rated games are the Xbox (19.2%) and Xbox 360 (17.6%).
Unique Company Signatures
With the
exception of the GameCube, Nintendo platforms are all very similar in
their distribution of ESRB ratings. That is, the GBA, Nintendo DS,
and Wii all have about the same percentages of T-rated and M-rated
games. It amusing to note that the one platform with a significantly
different distribution of game ratings was also arguably the least
successful.
The two
Microsoft platforms are notable for their large proportion of M-rated
games.
Sony platforms
are also quite similar to each other. If it were possible to rerate
the entire PlayStation 2 library to include E10+ games, its
distribution might look much more similar to the PSP distribution.
The set of
PlayStation 3 data consists of only 176 titles at this point, and
therefore may change substantially in the near future.
The above
comparisons show that each manufacturer generally has similar rating
distributions across its hardware platforms.
Wow, we have the ability to comment now? Thanks to whoever worked on that.
Awesome article. It's nice to see the rating system. The only thing that Microsoft needs to get is the retailer associates who feel the 360 is "The FPS" machine. I'd be interested in seeing the breakdown of genres for each system.
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Can you update the article to include PC?
Awesome article. It's nice to see the rating system. The only thing that Microsoft needs to get is the retailer associates who feel the 360 is "The FPS" machine. I'd be interested in seeing the breakdown of genres for each system.
Thanks a lot.