After reading an article over at Kotaku about the reduced number of M-rated games in 2007, I became curious about the overall ratings of games for each console. I examined the data over at the ESRB website and compiled some of that information into helpful graphs. My love of graphs may be unhealthy, but it sure is illuminating.
Rather than deal with the raw numbers, I decided to look at the ratings as a percentage of each console’s overall library. The Nintendo DS, it should come as little surprise, has the largest ESRB-rated library. There’s a reason everybody owns a DS. The bulk of its titles are targeted toward the casual gamer and, as should be expected, its library is dominated by E and E10+ rated titles.
This distribution makes sense for the console. I was surprised, in fact, that the DS had any Mature-rated games at all. They even lack many Teen-rated games. Given the tremendous sales of the Nintendo DS, it’s apparent that creating games targeted (or rated, really) specifically to the teen and up demogaphics isn’t necessary for success.
The Wii has a slight larger segment of its library rated for the teen and up market, but the games coming out for it are, by and large, receiving ratings indicative of its place in the casual market. The boom of the Wii really demonstrates a corollary of sorts from the movie industry. The sweet spot for ratings in movies is PG-13, with few movies receiving R-ratings enjoying blockbuster status. The Wii, quite simply, is focusing on the sweet spot for the casual gaming market.
With the Xbox 360, we begin to see more segmentation. Although just over fifty percent of its library is rated E or E10+, many of its games are rated Teen and up. Nothing really revelatory here, given that the Xbox 360 markets toward the older demographic and focuses on hardcore gamers.
The PlayStation 3 is even more evenly split than the Xbox 360 in its E/E10+ versus T/M ratings. The ratings breakdown for both the Xbox 360 and the PS3 make it clear that they are direct competitors with one another rather than with the Wii. In other words, with such a similar distribution of adult content in titles, it is less likely that a consumer would own both a 360 and a PS3.
The PSP surprised me. The PSP always surprises me, in fact. With its high debut price, I expected it to fade away like Minidisc players. And yet it has hung around. I suspect that it’s because of its large library of games targeted toward the teen market. Owning a PSP is more of a style choice, and, thus, is more likely to appeal to older style-conscious teens. Not that there’s any stigma in a Nintendo DS–especially not these days–but the PSP is certainly a sexier looking package.
Below are more graphs arranging these data in different ways, should you want to go data-crazy.
July 8th, 2008 at 8:53 am
this in formation is well prepared! thanks for breaking it down for me.
July 8th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
@Lynn Dasnie: Glad we could be of help!