Game fakes ‘adult-only’ rating

The publishers of free-to-play online game Wartune have been banned from sexing up the marketing of the game with an “adult-only” rating, amid claims the ad would never pass strict guidelines.
It is unclear which company the Entertainment Software Rating Board contacted, as the game – developed by 7 Road – is currently distributed online by several companies including Kabam, Kongregate, Armor Games, NGames, R2Games, and Proficient City.
The ESRB only has juridiction in the US and Canada but the game is available worldwide. The ad features a scantily dressed angel next to the tradmarked ESRB “adults only” logo, with the tagline “adult gamers only”.
An ESRB spokesman said: “We have advised the game’s publisher that they must discontinue their unauthorised use of our AO rating icon in its marketing. While it’s fairly rare for a game to self-apply a rating we will always move quickly to address the issue.”
The ESRB added: “Our goal is, of course, that they immediately stop using the rating. If a game is digitally distributed, we also encourage companies to use our Digital Rating Service, which is fast and easy and assigns ratings without the developer having to pay a fee.”
Even if the game had been rated AO, the spokesman said the ads – which have been running on Google’s AdSense network – would violate the ESRB’s advertising guidelines. These state no ad should “glamorise or exploit” a game’s rating.