A press release from the ESRB announces that Oblivion's rating has been changed from T to M, which of course guarantees that everyone aged 13 to 16 that currently owns the game will be turning it into their local Naughty Games Relcamation Center. The reasons for this four-year offset in age appropriateness are " more detailed depictions of blood and gore than were considered in the original rating, as well as the presence of a locked-out art file or 'skin' that, if accessed through a third party modification to the PC version of the game, allows the user to play with topless versions of female characters."

Okay, biased cynical pseudo-journalism warning here: is it just me or is the first part of that excuse a transparent attempt to make the second part sound less stupid? What does it mean that they didn't "consider" the extra blood and gore? Is there an especially gory monster in a side-quest they weren't aware of? Did Bethesda only show them the parts where you pick daisies and deliver hot meals to elderly invalids?

As for the "Hot Mead" skins, what's gained by taking into account material that isn't actually in the game as such, just on the disk? Surely it takes more effort to download and install a game mod than it does to enter your favorite naughty bit into Google and start clicking. I wonder if next World of Warcraft is going to get the M rating because "Tangy Clam Meat" sounds kind of naughty and if you put a dancing gnome behind a boar it looks like he's having sex with it.

At the same time, just to be snotty to everyone involved, you'd think that game developers would have the sense to make sure erotic Easter eggs get pulled before gold, no matter how obscured they are. Of course, this won't hurt sales. Release to a wide audience with a T rating, then get a publicity boost when the nipple textures are discovered. Nobody's head is going to roll over this.

ESRB Parent Advisory [Market Wire]

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