I know other places on the internet have wondered why exactly all the Halo games that are First-person Shooters are all rated M, but I thought putting it here and hopefully have that question answered.
I’ve also noticed that for some parts of the community the topic is quite controversial, especially with parents that let their kids play the games because really, Halo is more a Teen rated game and so far Wars and Spartan Assault are the only ones people say (including myself) got rated correctly by the ESRB and an ad in one the first Halo books showed the rating the first one should of gotten. The main reason why it deserves a Teen rating instead a Mature rating because it is nowhere near as intense as most FPS games in the market right now and even Halo legends got a PG-13 rating. I think the main reason why is because the series runs into people at the ESRB that think every FPS game should be slapped with an M rating so kids can’t buy it or they think that the story is too “mature”. But seriously, why are these games rated M, not even blowing the flood to pieces is enough to convince some parents that this series is too violent for kids. The ESRB should take a closer look at the games and see that the “mature” content is not very realistic and that only the flood ever get dismembered.
As a person who has worked in Hollywood for a number of years I can say this concerning your inquiry. Rating commissions are a lot like the mob. It’s who you know, who you blow, who doesn’t like you and who does like you. There is supposed to be a set standard for ratings, yet this is always compromised by internal politics, unions, sponsorships, favorites, back-biting etc.
The ESRB is supposed to be completely separate from the movie industry but unfortunately has the same flops.
Concerning a game specifically, one has to consider the regions that the game is going to be released. Different regions have different rating standards and certifications. While one region might consider brief nudity to be PG13, another region might consider it to be -Yoink!-. It’s all in the region. Putting an M rating on a video game cuts through all the hoopla of having to deal with regions that have more harsh rating standards. Now, I’m not saying that’s the exact case concerning Halo’s “M” rating, but it is definitely a factor that comes into play.
Sometimes it’s best just to give it an “M” just so your product may be legally sold in other countries/regions. Your question is one that has many different answers, I’ve provided you with one example of many, and one that is most likely taken into the highest consideration when marketing American made games overseas.
Hope this helps.
Also, your inquiry is one that has an interesting back-story. Read up on rating commissions/boards and you’ll see how corrupt and disorganized (yet, perfectly organized they are).
I can say that Halo is most definitely milder than most FPS games in pretty much every category, but “M” is a very broad rating, just like PG-13 covers a wide spectrum of maturity levels in film.
I do think that Halo mostly deserves Teen ratings, but it’s unlikely that will ever change.
In the original Xbox days, the ESRB was much more strict about its ratings than it is now, and changing Halo games to Teen once their standards relaxed would have seemed inconsistent.
IMO, Halo should be rated T. I’m sure that the reason it’s M is because of the first person perspective gives the player more of the feeling that they are the killer, and can more easily witness the blood, violence, and gore of the battlefield. Of course ESRB, like most rating systems are wildly inconsistent.
Fun Fact: (not sure how true) But I once heard that Halo 2 was almost rated A because some guy at bungie thought it would be funny to take a photocopy of his -Yoink- and hide it in the game. I believe he was fired.
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> IMO, Halo should be rated T. I’m sure that the reason it’s M is because of the first person perspective gives the player more of the feeling that they are the killer, and can more easily witness the blood, violence, and gore of the battlefield. Of course ESRB, like most rating systems are wildly inconsistent.
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> Fun Fact: (not sure how true) But I once heard that Halo 2 was almost rated A because some guy at bungie thought it would be funny to take a photocopy of his -Yoink- and hide it in the game. I believe he was fired.
That picture actually made it into the release version of Halo 2 Vista as (ironically enough) a “.-a-s-s-” error. The ESRB initially added “partial nudity” to H2V’s M rating reasons.
It’s the mostly Blood and Gore (from humans and flood)
The Gore comes from the flood (zombie type creatures)
The blood is from everybody and everything that you shoot, the red blood splatter from humans is what caused the M-rating. I’ve been looking and studying the how the ESRB works for 8 years.
It’s very interesting, there similar to the MPAA (ratings of films) but different.
If there was no red blood splatter from humans and gore from the flood, It will be rated T for teen for the blood splatter (and violence) of the aliens (there blood is purple, green, orange and blue)
Presumably the prevalent themes in the story of extinction/ genocide, the flood as a general thing, the ability to dismember Flood corpses, the Composer, blood, partial nudity, and the fact that online play could contain curse words and so forth.
Interestingly enough, Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach do not contain the ‘gore’ rating on their boxes, indicating the Flood is a reason for the gore rating (And the Composer in Halo 4)
In australia every Halo game asides Halo 3,4 & Wars is rated MA15+, Which is restricted and requires the buyer to present I.D (Which people don’t do anyway). I think an M rating which is usually a more lax rating in australia suits the games a lot better.
Besides the blood and gore from enemies and especially the Flood, occasional curse words, and Cortana’s partial nudity, people seem to forget that the mature war themes play a part. Halo will always have that.
Halo 4 also had the Composer scene, where we watched Tillson disintegrate from her skin to her muscle to her bone in an agonizing death.
No, really. Because of the blood spatter and the Flood being able to be smashed into pieces. Also the occasional -damn- or -b*tch-, and Cortana’s partial nudity.