ESRB retracts Dead Or Alive comments

Ratings body ESRB has apologised for certain comments made about Tecmo Koei’s upcoming PSP title, Dead Or Alive paradise.

Yesterday, a variety of outlets reported on the board’s description of the controversial title. The official ESRB website said:

Parents and consumers should know that the game contains a fair amount of cheesy,” and at times, creepy voyeurism-especially when users have complete rotate-pan-zoom control; but the game also contains bizarre, misguided notions of what women really want (if given two weeks, paid vacation, island resort)-Paradise cannot mean straddling felled tree trunks in dental-floss thongs.”

However, these comments have since been revoked, with the ESRB claiming they were posted in error” and apologised for the subjected language” used.

In a statement, ESRB spokesperson Eliot Mizrachi said: Our intention with rating summaries is to provide useful, detailed descriptions of game content that are as objective and informative as possible.

However they are ultimately written by people and, in this case, we mistakenly posted a rating summary that included what some could rightfully take to be subjective statements. We sincerely regret the error and will work to prevent this from happening again in the future.”

When asked by MCV, Tecmo Koei Europe’s vice president Will Curley said: Tecmo has not reached out to the ESRB regarding the description, so the decision to remove or update was entirely their call.

While we will not deny the fact that this title offers voyeuristic appeal, we do not mention or use phrases such as ‘creepy’, ‘dental-floss thongs’, ‘bizarre’ or ‘misguided notions’ in any part of our rating submission materials.”