Game Room denied mature games

By Robert Purchese Published 1 February, 2010

Service suitable for 10 year-olds.

Mature games may be prohibited on Microsoft's new online PC and Xbox 360 platform, Game Room. To avoid laboriously rating hundreds of retro titles individually, MS has decided to classify Game Room itself. The ESRB has deemed the service suitable for anyone aged 10 or over, and any game falling within those perameters can be sold at publisher's and platform holder's leisure.

The problem surrounds games rated for older audiences, such as Mortal Kombat, Metal Slug and Street Fighter.

"Games available for download within Game Room will carry either E or E10+ ratings. We currently have no plans to feature titles of those [higher Teen and Mature] ratings," an MS spokesperson told GamerBytes. We're chasing this up with Microsoft.

Game Room is this year's big addition to Xbox Live and Games for Windows - Live. The idea is that users make their own arcades by buying game cabinets and then invite their friends over to play.

Each cabinet costs 240 MSP (£2/€2.80) and once bought can be played for free for ever. You can also buy and share one cabinet between PC and Xbox 360 for 400 MSP (£3.40/€4.65).

If you're just trying games you'll need to put money in HEY IT'S JUST LIKE THE REAL THING. Tokens are 40 MSP (£0.34/€0.47) and entitle you to two plays.

Decorations are bought and also won by beating high scores.

Game Room will boast 30 games at launch and around 1000 after three years. There's no launch date, however.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (23) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Anthony_UK #1 2 years ago

    So that means no:

    Wrestlefest
    Shadowdancer
    Robocop
    POW
    Pitfighter
    Mortal Kombat
    Shinobi
    To name a few...

    ...Even Chase HQ?

    Unbelievable! ATOMIC FACE PALMS all round for whoever thought that up!!
    Edited by 1 at 01/02/10 @ 09:19

  • woodnotes #2 2 years ago

    I was playing all those games when I was 10 :)

  • Poorandugly #3 2 years ago

    Very strange decision, surely they will change this policy?

  • Eraysor #4 2 years ago

    perameters?

  • wizlon #5 2 years ago

    So there won't be any over 18 only section full of slot machines like in real arcades?

  • Anthony_UK #6 2 years ago

    In fact thinking about it, if they are focusing on 80's/early 90's games.. I can't think of many that i'd want that don't involve some kind of shooting or fighting!

  • Skeletor #7 2 years ago

    Back to Mame then;-)

  • homerramone #8 2 years ago

    I think M$ have already killed this for many when the announced you need to rebuy games you already bought if you want a virtual cabinet !

  • Anthony_UK #9 2 years ago

    Have they actually said that, I thought the last i'd heard was that they wern't going to re-release double dragon etc on the service?

  • Monkey_Puncher #10 2 years ago

    Damn, no Killer Instinct :(

  • frankfurter209 #11 2 years ago

    Street Fighter is too mature? What a joke

  • miiiguel #12 2 years ago

    @homerramone : why? I'm sure I'm not going to buy I game I already bought, but that fact has no influence on games I do not have on XBLA. Why should it?

  • jonsaan #13 2 years ago

    Come on MS. Enough with the points already. It's time to go real world pricing.

  • dfish #14 2 years ago

    so microsoft copy the arcade element of home( a free service within a free service) and decide to charge for it,(a paid service within a paid service) why does that sound so typically microsoft.

  • Ryze #15 2 years ago

    No CHASE HQ?

    NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

  • crazyhorse174 #16 2 years ago

    so microsoft copy the arcade element of home( a free service within a free service) and decide to charge for it,(a paid service within a paid service) why does that sound so typically microsoft.

    Have you actually played the games in the arcade in Home? They're not very good and theres only about 2 of them!

  • Murton #17 2 years ago

    I think the mini-games in HOME are okay. There may only be three or four arcade machines but there's pool tables, bowling alleys, chess and checker boards, a race track, a driving range, poker tables, need I go on?

    With new areas and new games being added to HOME all the time I'd say it's a pretty good service, especially when you consider that it is free. This "Game Rooms" might turn out to be as good or better, but with no games rated teen or above there's going be a lot of iconic titles from our childhood missing, such as the ones listed by Anthony_UK and perhaps more importantly, no Final Fight either.

  • Bander #18 2 years ago

    Real arcades never had such a restriction besides a policy to put gambling machines in a separate area for adults.

    Still, do we know yet if Games Room will have any late '80s or more recent games? Anything before then may be too abstract to be considered unsuitable for under 10s today.

  • metalangel #19 2 years ago

    Forget it. Old Xbox 1 from Gamestation + softmod + MAME = every old arcade game ever, forever.

  • Sunyavadin #20 2 years ago

    Game Room will boast 1000 users at launch and around 30 after three years.

    Corrected your typo.

  • dllord #21 2 years ago

    What a bunch of idiot tossers MS are, were going miss out on loads of good games because of this!

  • SpaceMonkey77 #22 2 years ago

    Nice one, MS. You've just killed this whole Game Room thing, dead in the water.

    If its going to be watered down, why serve it at all? You should let the user decide if they want their arcade to feature mature content or not.

    Stuff 8 bit games, I wanted more focus on 90's arcade games.

  • SonicUk #23 2 years ago

    Thats pathetic. If you are over 15 or 18(given that Ms have your d.o.b when you create an account)you should be able to play those games with the approriate age rating.