PEGI to expand its rating system to the Nintendo eShop

Currently, indie developers wishing to publish games on the Nintendo eShop in Europe have to go through the various rating agencies like PEGI, USK and ACB. Each has its own rating procedures, which are generally quite costly and time consuming. But this will soon be a thing of the past, as PEGI announced today that its rating system is going to expand to the Nintendo eShop.

To be more precise, PEGI announced the expansion of its rating system to mobile and digital storefronts (like the Nintendo eShop). It’s part of a global initiative from the various agencies around the world (PEGI for Europe, ESRB for North America, USK for Germany, ClassInd for Brazil and the ACB for Australia).

They recently established the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC), in order to streamline the rating process of digital and mobile games. Since those are more and more numerous, such streamlining was sorely needed (especially in Europe). The system is currenly in use on Google Play and the Firefox Market Place, and will soon expand to digital storefronts like the Nintendo eShop.

The new process greatly streamlines the rating of games and apps, but also preserves the cultural standards of each region. All developers and publishers have to so is fill in a questionnaire, and then they will automatically get the corresponding ratings for all agencies (PEGI, USK, ESRB, ACB, ClassInd, etc.).

The good news is that this new process is much faster for (indie) developers and publishers… but also completely free. Therefore, it will make releasing games on the European (and Australian) Nintendo eShop much faster, easier and less costly. Indie developers will still have to through lot-check at Nintendo, but the streamlining of age rating processes is one less hurdle to deal with for them.

Source: PEGI