For the first time in Rocksteady's Batman series of games, one title - "Batman: Arkham Knight" - has earned an "M for Mature" rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB). This has surprised the studio's founder, Sefton Hill.
"From our point of view, we never wrote it or made it with a rating in mind. We never did that in the previous two games... We just felt that this is the story that we really wanted to tell," he told IGN.
"I'm not blind to the fact that [the M rating] does mean some fans will miss out... I don't want to be oblivious to that fact," he continued. "It would have been wrong to water down the game and deliver a story we didn't believe in to keep the game 'mass market' or enable it for more people. We feel that's the wrong way to go about it. We said we love the story and we don't want to jepoardize that."
"As the end of the trilogy, we have every villain in Gotham working together to destroy Batman," the game director of "Arkham Knight" went on to say. "It's unavoidable that some bad stuff is going to happen. But that doesn't mean we changed our approach. We're not including gratuitous blood or swearing. We want to deliver a true end with no compromises, and it takes us to some dark places."
And what dark places they are, indeed, considering that this creative direction has led to the controversial rating. It can be recalled that "Arkham Asylum" and "Arkham City" had been given "T for Teen" ratings, which can explain Hill's reaction.
Meanwhile, Forbes contributor Paul Tassi downplayed the "M" rating for the title as a game with such a rating, "unlike the movie industry," is not "all that big of a deal."
"Movies will bend over backward to cut themselves down to PG-13 from an R in order to have a chance at dramatically increasing their box office haul," he said. "Gaming is a much different story, with rating hardly seeming to matter at all."
"M-rated games are routinely best-sellers, and comparatively seven out of the top 25 highest selling video games of all time are rated M," Tassi pointed out. "In fact, there isn't a single T-rated game in the list."
However, Tassi also went on to say that it's surprising that the Batman games have only scored an M rating just now.
"Though there's no gore or outright nudity in the Arkham series, Batman's brawls with henchmen are often incredibly violent, and even without bloodshed, it's easy to cringe at some of the bone-crunching sound effects," he observed.
He also said that teen "is just a very scarce category in gaming these days" and remarked on how easy for gamers of all ages to access or play M-rated titles.
With that, will the "M" rating keep you from getting your hands on "Batman: Arkham Knight"?
"Arkham Knight" will be launched June 2 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC, according to GameSpot.
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