8th November 2006, 7:20 PM
They don't "need to" actually. There's really no legal requirement for Nintendo to rate their old games, or even their new games. It's just an industry standard to PREVENT such laws from being set up. It's a good thing there's no legal requirement either, because it isn't very cheap or timely to get the process done and some people like to make their own games for free out of the home.
Thing is, a lot of these old games, like Super Mario RPG, were ALREADY rated once before. What, did the rating expire? Is there new content? Well, considering that rereleases of some old games have recieved new ratings for unexplained reasons before (Chrono Trigger is apparently both an E and T rated game, as is Final Fantasy IV and V), maybe they do expire, or at least expose the fact that they are inconsistant.
I think we all just assumed there would be no issues at all with Nintendo just shoving all their games onto a server's hard disk and setting up a pricing structure. If that was all it took, then it would be easy to see having access to pretty much the ENTIRE library of, at least, Nintendo's own games available at launch. Unfortunatly, if each game has to be rated, now Nintendo will have to make some "choices". What is worth the price of an ESRB rating? What content should be EDITED to get the rating for the demographic we want? Business, as per usual, ruins EVERYTHING!
Thing is, a lot of these old games, like Super Mario RPG, were ALREADY rated once before. What, did the rating expire? Is there new content? Well, considering that rereleases of some old games have recieved new ratings for unexplained reasons before (Chrono Trigger is apparently both an E and T rated game, as is Final Fantasy IV and V), maybe they do expire, or at least expose the fact that they are inconsistant.
I think we all just assumed there would be no issues at all with Nintendo just shoving all their games onto a server's hard disk and setting up a pricing structure. If that was all it took, then it would be easy to see having access to pretty much the ENTIRE library of, at least, Nintendo's own games available at launch. Unfortunatly, if each game has to be rated, now Nintendo will have to make some "choices". What is worth the price of an ESRB rating? What content should be EDITED to get the rating for the demographic we want? Business, as per usual, ruins EVERYTHING!
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)