BBFC: Were ready to rate all games

The British Board Of Film Classification told MCV that it would back any move to make it responsible for rating every game – and that it recognises flaws in PEGI’s system.

However, the body told MCV that it had received no official confirmation from the Government that the widely-speculated news is in the works.

Fears have been raised this week over the BBFC’s capability to handle the extra workload if the new age-ratings system is brought in – but the body’s spokesperson Sue Clark said that it was confident it could handle the extra administration duties.

BBFC is a rating people understand from film and DVD, so it might give parents a bit more piece of mind,” she said.

It would mean a bigger workload – but that’s our problem, not the industry’s – and we know we could handle it. Our own research shows parents can be confused by PEGI’s difficulty ratings. A significant proportion of distributors in games already submit much of their software to us regardless of whether it’s a kids’ game or an adult game – so this would just mean a widening of that.

The Guardian article was a piece we had nothing to do with – and if you read it, nothing is attributed to a source. It looks like no-one has briefed The Guardian.

We don’t know what Dr. Byron is going to recommend, but we’d be prepared to take on the role of classifying all games if that’s what’s decided.”