It's bad when it's enforced privately too. 'AO' is the rating for games equivalent to 'NC-17' for movies. You'd think they're be treated similarly, but no conso

It's bad when it's enforced privately too. 'AO' is the rating for games equivalent to 'NC-17' for movies. You'd think they're be treated similarly, but no console manufacturer will license AO games for their platform, nor will most stores carry them. This has created a de facto ban. There are literally only 27 games that have ever been rated AO [1], because the only real choice a developer has is to censor the game enough to release at a lower rating. Sure, movies do censor themselves for financial reasons too, but they may later release an uncut edition. For games, even that is simply impossible. [1] http://www.esrb.org/ratings/search.aspx http://www.esrb.org/ratings/search.aspx