DRM News

For some time now, Michael Atkinson has served as a one man roadblock against admitting the simple truth that the average gamer is a 35 year old adult. After all, why admit such things when you can pull out the ‘Think of the children!” bogeyman for cheap camera time whenever you need it.

Anyway, thanks to Atkinson’s consistent denial to the idea of  adding an 18+ bracket for game ratings, the entire process has been held up for over a year. Well, the long national nightmare (Engage in hyperbole? Me? Never!) of scapegoating and ridiculousness has stepped aside now, and his replacement seems to be much more in tune with reality. He’s also probably more in tune with the fact that the lack of an 18+ rating has meant many games have been squeezed in to MA15+ ratings despite featuring adult levels of violence, and total inconsistency with what was allowed and what wasn’t from game to game.

John Rau reportedly wants to see an 18+ rating introduced, at least according to Gamers4Croydon party president Chris Prior :

Gamers4Croydon party president Chris Prior told news.com.au he had met with Mr Rau and the MP was open to the introduction of an adult rating.

"Just over a week ago, I had the pleasure of meeting him personally when I attended an election forum in his electorate," he said.

"He indicated to me that the lack of an R18+ for games seemed absurd, and that it was really just common sense to introduce it, considering the vast majority of adult content is already available under the MA15+ classification."

All of Australia’s attorneys-general will be meeting in about a month, and the addition of an R18+ rating is on the agenda. It requires a unanimous vote to be passed, but considering that the only nay vote had previously been from Atkinson, that seems likely.