Real age to buy m rated games

Email news gamespot. The FTC's findings, in handy bar-graph form. But nowhere was the drop sharper than with games. Join the conversation There are 79 comments about this story.

Load Comments Use your keyboard! The ratings have no legal bearing, but most of the video game industry--which sponsors the ESRB--abides by them. The study surveyed retail stores in the United States. The best results, the FTC said, were at GameStop stores, where only 6 percent of unders were able to buy the M-rated games. The worst was Hollywood Video, where 40 percent succeeded.

It's no surprise that GameStop led the charts for restricting kids from buying M-rated games, as the retailer generally keeps those games behind the counter. It is, however, a bit surprising that Wal-Mart fared so well. We commend and applaud retailers for their strong support of the ESRB ratings, and will continue working with them to help ensure that these levels of compliance are sustained if not further increased. Of course, the study seems to have been conducted before the April 29 release of Rockstar Games' record-setting Grand Theft Auto IV , and I would be willing to bet that the numbers of under kids able to buy that M-rated game is higher than the industry-wide numbers reported by the FTC.

UPDATE: It should be noted that this survey was only performed in a single county in the state of California, where 28 of 60 retailers sold M-rated games to minors. It should also be noted that current ESRB ratings suggest that M-rated games be sold to ages 17 and up. Retailers who sold M-rated games to consumers under the age of 18, according to this survey, would not be running afoul of the ratings system if those consumers were in fact 17 years of age.

Publisher aims to expand its offerings of non-violent and cooperative entertainment games with the acquisition.