Batman: Arkham Knight will take its titular hero to some "dark places", according to game director Sefton Hill. This follows confirmation that the release has been awarded an M rating by US ratings board ESRB, meaning that it's intended for players aged 17 or over only. However, the executive insists that the studio won't be going overboard with the release's violence.
"We never wrote it or made it with a rating in mind," he told IGN. "We never did that in the previous two games. As the end of the trilogy, we have every villain in Gotham working together to destroy Batman. It's unavoidable that some bad stuff is going to happen. But that doesn't mean that 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."
According to Hill, Warner Bros had previously warned him that a couple of mature scenes may affect the rating, but he opted to keep them in. "They were key scenes – we couldn't lose them," he exclaimed. "I'm not blind to the fact that [the M rating] does mean that some fans will miss out. It would have been wrong to water down the game and deliver a story that we didn't believe in to keep the game 'mass market' or enable it for more people."
Apparently, the title features "blood, language, suggestive themes, and violence" – but we'll need to wait for the full release to see which specific scenes pushed it over the edge. It's probably safe to assume that the Dark Knight won't be doing much murdering – but he's unlikely to have any qualms knocking a few heads together.
[source ign.com, via eurogamer.net]
Comments 16
I hope it won't be too bad. It shouldn't be, but this news really troubles me. While I doubt it it'll be more than a milder M so I'd still probably be willing to play it, but it'll still be be one heck of a task to convince me parents to let me get it now.
Ummm yeah. This is Batman and a huge release. It will get toned down and not get an "M" rating for release. Some suit at some level will force this to be "censored", no game of this high profile, that does have a market at the <17 level, is going to lose customers because of a scene or two. I'll gladly /eatcrow during the review on this site when it releases, but I don't think I will have to.
This is good news for me as all of my games are 18 certificate rating. Its not that I only go for mature rated games, but its nice to see games being targeted to adults instead of mainly children as they once were.
This is the final game in the Arkham trilogy so it makes sence that its going to have violent scenes and its good to here the devs didn't want to comprise just to make extra sales. This game will sell well regardless of its age rating. Besides, there're millions of kids that play Call of Duty and that has a mature rating. Really looking forward to this one.
@SavoirFaire Yeah, there is a chance of that happening. I could see it going either way though.
@WARDIE They said they didn't consider the rating with the previous two games either, so the only that would change is the actual marketing, not the game itself with who it's targeting. Also, this may not get an 18 rating. A lot of M rated games get the 16 rating in Europe. In fact, I think it already has that as a provisional rating.
@SavoirFaire It's out in June, I doubt they're changing it now.
I wonder if it's the "suggestive themes" that's pushing it towards the M-rating? I can't really think of anything outside of perhaps some sort of drug use that would affect the rating like this. Unless the violence is a little more generous this time around.
If its more violent then i only hope its realistic violence, regardless I'm sure it will be good and sell well. I don't see why though they can't release a wimp version or add an option to turn down the violence in the options menu, kittens mode.
@Sir_JBizzle I doubt it, I mean, all it would take with violence or blood is a bit more dripping blood (or left over in a murder, maybe written on the wall) in one scene, a clearly snapped neck, or someone's leg going in the wrong direction. Or else they beat on someone with a direct view a bit longer than a T rating allowes. Remember the one scene in Origins where the Joker was beating the guy repeatedly with a gun? I think the game would have been rated had they changed the camera angle on ita bit. It really wouldn't take much I think
@Jaz007 yeah, 16 makes sense, I don't know about the rest of Europe but in the UK you can start a family at 16 and join the army at 16 too, sex & violence. Imagine going into game in your army uniform with your baby in a pram... "Sorry mate, can't sell you batman, its an 18 and full of violence".
@SavoirFaire why would they need to lower the age rating? Do you know how many kids are playing GTA? Parents don't care about age ratings as long as it keeps the kiddies quite for a few hours.
@imtom2002 They may not matter as much in movies, but they do matter. How else to you explain all the MMOs and stuff like Uncharted. Something like Batman can take a hit from an M rating.
@Jaz007 How? I'm saying most parents aren't really bothered by the rating on the game. Kids ask for them and they get them. Plus there's online orders you can pay with PayPal that don't even check your age. GTA was played by loads of kids COD is full of foul mouthed little kids and games like gears of war were the same. I don't think it will matter at all. That's just my opinion though dude.
"Will Take You to Some 'Dark Places'?" Doesn't Batman have a Torch then?
When playing Asylum, I always wondered why the Joker's henchmen never swore. Then I remembered it was a T rating.
Can't really see this being a really violent M rated game.
This is great news, hopefully Arkham Knight will be the best Batman game ever.
@Jaz007 You can avoid that by buying a physical Amazon gift card with cash/money inside a real store and use that to buy Batman: Arkham Knight on Amazon.
I'm assuming your country's stores sell Amazon gift cards though.
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