Oblivion rerated M for Mature

[UPDATE] ESRB bumps up game's rating from T for Teen, says Bethesda failed to properly report objectionable content in ratings submission.

Take-Two Interactive may not have a follow-up for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas yet, but it appears the publisher does have a pseudo-sequel to that game's Hot Coffee scandal on its hands.

The Entertainment Software Ratings Board today issued a parental advisory that it has changed the rating of Take-Two subsidiary 2K Games' hit role-playing game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for the PC and the Xbox 360. (Inital reports indicated that only the PC version of the game had been re-rated.) Originally released with a rating of T for Teen, the game has now been rerated M for Mature, due to "more detailed depictions of blood and gore than were considered in the original rating, as well as the presence of a locked-out art file or 'skin' that, if accessed through a third-party modification to the PC version of the game, allows the user to play with topless versions of female characters."

Before the game was rerated, Pete Hines of Oblivion developer Bethesda Softworks discussed the mod with GameSpot. "Obviously we have a pretty big, and active, mod community for the PC version, and there are some gamers who hacked into Oblivion's art archive files and modified them to create a nude upper female torso in the game," Hines said. "We can't control and don't condone the actions of anyone who alters the game so that it displays material that may be considered offensive. We haven't received any complaints on the issue from anyone."

The ESRB is adding a "nudity" content descriptor to the PC version of the game "until it can be re-mastered and released with the topless skin removed."

[UPDATE]: As for how Oblivion escaped the ratings process with an improper rating the first time around, the ESRB pointed the finger at Bethesda. When a company submits a game to be rated, it is required to provide the ESRB with a video tape "showing the most extreme content and an accurate representation of the context and product as a whole."

After discovering the issues in "post-release monitoring and play-testing," the ESRB initiated a review of the game's original ratings process. The board cross-examined the tape Bethesda submitted with video taken from the final release of the game, and ultimately determined that the developer understated the detail and intensity of the blood and gore in the game. In reference to the nude skin, which is inaccessible during normal play and so couldn't have been included in the taped submission, the ESRB said publishers are required "to disclose locked-out content during the rating process if it is pertinent to a rating," and that Bethesda failed to do so.

As a result, the ESRB said a number of corrective actions are being taken regarding the matter. Bethesda will notify retailers of the rating change, provide stores and distributors with M-rating stickers for all unsold copies of the game, and preparing new packaging with the proper rating and content descriptors for future copies of the game. Bethesda will also prepare a downloadable patch to modify the game's art archive and make the topless skin inaccessible, even on a modded PC version of the game.

Shortly after the ESRB parental advisory was issued, Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association president Hal Halpin sent out his own statement about the re-rating. Halpin called the resulting change in sales policy for the game "immediate," and said a number of major retailers had already changed their systems so cashiers would be prompted to ask for ID when copies of Oblivion were scanned.

"Of note in this matter is the speed at which retailers reacted and parents were empowered," Halpin said. "Ultimately that is what makes any ratings system effective in the end."

A Take-Two representative deferred GameSpot's questions regarding the matter to Bethesda, but did say that the company doesn't expect the re-rating to have a financial impact on its operations.

581 Comments

  • Rohan75

    Posted Sep 6, 2009 12:52 pm PT

    My mom doesn't let me get this game for xbox 360 because its rated M but im starting to convince by telling her about how it should be rated t ^_^

  • geoff-uk123

    Posted Aug 14, 2009 10:25 am PT

    It was fine with the rating it had. Re-rating the PC version is one thing, but I can't understand why they re-rated the consoles versions, as those versions arn't modifiable.

  • Blazingfire17

    Posted Aug 7, 2009 1:26 pm PT

    i have played morrowind, and oblivion, and ok, oblivion has some more blood and gore, but not enough to change it to M :[

  • deadsqueel77

    Posted Jul 28, 2009 10:59 am PT

    screw u ersb its just a mod jesus crist

  • filmboy85

    Posted Jul 13, 2009 5:17 pm PT

    This was simply a publicity stunt by the ESRB to please conservative parents and politicians. To me, it sounds like Bethesda accurately described the game's violence, and the fact that the ESRB changed the rating based on a mod is stupid. They know that everyone else thinks mods shouldn't be accounted for in a game's rating, so they are simply trying to blame Bethesda for their weak attempt at avoiding controversy. Anyways, Uncharted is probably comparable to Oblivion with regards to content (violence and language), and it's rated T. In fact, some consider Oblivion milder (in Australia, Oblivion has a lower rating than Uncharted, and the Australian rating system is far stricter than the ESRB).

  • starduke

    Posted Jun 24, 2009 6:29 am PT

    So, that's why I was playing the game and thinking "What nudity?" All the women still have their underwear on, unless you can access the topless skin. I actually have the GOTY PC edition which doesn't have the nudity on the box as part of the rating by the ESRB. It still has the hanging bodies and the blood and gore and language though. It makes it a bit more realistic then Morrowind. When you chop something with an axe, they be chopped and should have some blood and gore. So, it's stll M rated, just without the optinal topless women.

  • lol384

    Posted Apr 30, 2009 4:49 pm PT

    360 version should still be T because you cant mod it and the language isnt bad and the hanging body which the ERSB board considered gore(well it is but thats one thing) so it should'nt have changed

  • Lebowski-Dude

    Posted Mar 29, 2009 11:21 am PT

    @ Mr Versipellis
    I think he meant that the 360 version couldn't be modded. At least, that's what would make more sense.

  • Mr_Versipellis

    Posted Mar 28, 2009 7:59 am PT

    The stupidest thing about this was that even if the skin wasn#'t excluded there'd have been nude mods out within hours... Even Morrowind's most popular mod has a nude option (called "Better Bodies")
    BTW 360 people, get your facts right. The PC version CAN be modded. I'd know. I'm a big TES fanboy and a modder.

  • NeoBlueDragonEX

    Posted Mar 23, 2009 4:43 pm PT

    God, this is unfair. Oblivion's one of my favorite games for the 360. You can't really mod it, so why change the rating? Thanks a lot, ESRB.

  • frazzle00

    Posted Feb 27, 2009 4:56 am PT

    The people who are concerned have obviously not had a look at the character models in Oblivion .

  • PSgeek

    Posted Dec 19, 2008 1:15 pm PT

    This is a joke...what if some moron made nude females...doesn't mean we have to play the game with the mod.

  • korajama

    Posted Aug 3, 2008 9:31 am PT

    that was pretty stupid when on other games they say online content is not rated. and guys if you look at the disc it still says teen

  • DeathHeart95

    Posted Jul 31, 2008 9:05 am PT

    They should've kept the T rating with the 360 version. Mods can't affect it, therefore, there is no reason to rate it M...

  • demonkiller111

    Posted Jun 23, 2008 12:53 pm PT

    Stupid pervs! Now it's going to be ough to find the T rated version so my parents can let be play it. Why do people have to be so perverted?

  • sammo365

    Posted Jun 7, 2008 3:01 pm PT

    What the hell... Now i cant convince my parents to let me get the game because of perverted people who have to screw with the game. I agree exactly with RoC1909. Mods shouldn't affect the ratings at all.

  • Lopur94

    Posted Jun 5, 2008 4:57 pm PT

    obviously the ESRB people arent computer whizes and only know how to rate games... and annoy people too...

  • Gretzky1106

    Posted Apr 19, 2008 7:47 pm PT

    I think they should have kept the Teen Rating but rather put a warning sticker on every copy of the game alerting parents the Blood & Gore may be a little higher than they expect for a Teen Rated Game.

  • skitchrick

    Posted Jan 30, 2008 2:32 pm PT

    Dear, ESRB - Do you wonder why everyone ignores your ratings? Maybe because they're ridiculous.

  • blamder-drag

    Posted Jan 18, 2008 1:45 pm PT

    Morrowind is just as bad as Oblivion you can find tons of mods on the internet that would make it an AO game. Games should be rated on original content not 3rd party content

  • cmorgan5607

    Posted Jan 4, 2008 1:45 pm PT

    that's sad. now some kid won't get to enjoy the wonderfulness of oblivion because his mommy saw the rating says "nudity". and it's something he would never even be able to see anyways.

  • lathan94

    Posted Dec 2, 2007 8:32 am PT

    its a mod that is 100% out of bethesdas control i cant believe the esrb dosnt get that. A mod is something created by the player which shouldnt be given a rating. The game it self is created by the developers which should be rated.

  • alpha_company

    Posted Nov 12, 2007 4:50 pm PT

    Oh I see, I better get playing Oblivion again...

  • BraindeadRacr

    Posted Nov 4, 2007 8:48 pm PT

    Exact same thing as the Hot Coffee thing.

    Normal players(I think I speak for 90% of the buyers of GTASA/Oblivion console versions) can't access that kind of stuff, and if they are able, that's for their own personal... Joy.

    Like, that hacker from the Netherlands who discovered the Hot Coffee file after digging around in places normal players can't digg around in... Does that mean that EVERYONE has to suffer(can't think of a different word) because of a few skilled hackers?

    Why all this trouble when only a handfull of guys can access it?

  • flashn00b

    Posted Sep 21, 2007 2:55 pm PT

    why should the 360 version be re-rated?

  • lordinuyasha21

    Posted Sep 21, 2007 5:48 am PT

    This is why I hate the esrb...they need to get it right the first time...I beleive RoC1909 has a very good point !

  • dudeglove

    Posted Sep 7, 2007 7:01 am PT

    HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

  • ScaryMoviefan

    Posted Aug 30, 2007 10:50 am PT

    it a mod ESRB isn't supposed to rate games because of it's mods

  • RoC1909

    Posted Aug 28, 2007 1:06 pm PT

    If a player could not access the so called 'offensive content' without having to make a program OR modify some settings that wouldn't 'ordinarily' be modified by the user, then the T rating should have stuck. I am SICK AND TIRED of these idiots modifying a game to have offensive content (and to get their OWN jollies) and then lawmakers coming in and screwing with the company. This is like buying a car, modifying the engine so that it only goes 150mph using TOOLS and PARTS that I MYSELF created. Taking said car out on the road, killing 100 people and then blaming the car company for the accident(s)......or......taking my handgun and placing it in the parking lot of the apartment I live in. Having some dumb ass person come by, pick it up and kill 15 people with it and then blaming the gun manufacturers. When are people going to be held accountable for their own actions?!?! If I shoot somebody, it's MY FAULT. If I spill hot coffee on myself while driving, maybe I shouldn't be drinking when I drive (which should be at all times.) If I create a MOD for a video game that shows all the women naked, it's MY FAULT! But again, this is the reason we have blood sucking lawyers. To get a person PAID when something happens and is THEIR OWN fault!!

  • ColdGen

    Posted Aug 27, 2007 9:20 pm PT

    Sigh! When will the industry grow up?

  • mishkawy

    Posted Aug 21, 2007 4:01 am PT

    its not even their fault its a mod MOD!!!

    you cannot rate a game from its mods??

  • druid318

    Posted Aug 6, 2007 11:10 am PT

    Something is wrong when a game full of machine guns and such is supposed to be better for teens than a skin of a topless woman.

  • 360gamerz

    Posted Jul 26, 2007 4:01 pm PT

    why is gettin upped to mature on 360 i swear u cnt mod on 360?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

  • 360gamerz

    Posted Jul 26, 2007 4:01 pm PT

    why is gettin upped to mature on 360 i swear u cnt mod on 360?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

  • shadymnms

    Posted Jul 22, 2007 5:07 am PT

    @ PrivateJessard, they do make the skins, put the skins are covered by other textures (their clothes) modders found a way to modify the appearence of the character, honestly i dont think its Bethesda's fault, they sent a tape of what is actually viewable at the time, thats like yelling at microsoft for you getting a virus, it's not there fault some one spent a **** load of time making mod/hacking it...

  • PrivateJessard

    Posted Jul 8, 2007 10:03 pm PT

    Why would they change it to M because of a skin? It's a skin. It's not like the creators of the game made the skin. Couldn't you do that to any game?

  • 761stPaladin

    Posted Jul 5, 2007 4:09 pm PT

    "As I stand there, watching hack these violent video games, even helpless to look at the ratings, I can't help but wonder....where the system has phailed" - my dad
    I mean seriously. Y?

  • Turisman4

    Posted Jul 3, 2007 11:44 am PT

    Gadwin is right. You can probably hack the characters in a children's educational game and the morons will consider it to be rated AO.

  • Gadwin100

    Posted Jun 24, 2007 7:29 pm PT

    Thats just ridiculous. ESRB is a bunch of total nubs. Locked out content should have NOTHING to do with a rating. If you want to make a rating based on what someone has to do something through a third party program, set up an additional rating system for that. See how many games would get the M or AO rating because some third party thing adds in nudity or something. Its so retarded. Just like Jack Thompson.

  • ryan72

    Posted Jun 15, 2007 8:45 pm PT

    my boxed version has the 'T' on it for TEEN, I guess it's a collector's item now due to the overreacting idiot masses...

  • TugboatTheGreat

    Posted May 13, 2007 11:56 am PT

    This is the stupidest thing I have ever heard. I've come across this same mod for Morrowind and Morrowind didn't even get talked about. You can't decide the rating of the game because of some third party modification. I think ESRB has become too uptight and has been giving M ratings for rediculous reasons.

  • woofiny

    Posted Apr 30, 2007 7:19 pm PT

    But Why this, Like Movies Have Nudity And Are Rated Pg-13
    T For Teen Is 13..And Nudity Doesn't Matter. I Bet Every 13+ Year Old Had Seen Some "Nude Female Upper Torso" Before..Why Now?

  • Little_Bloodred

    Posted Apr 29, 2007 5:26 pm PT

    Of course we must think about the innocent children who would be completely destroyed if they came in touch with what we call reality before their 18'th birthday.

  • Scout013

    Posted Mar 29, 2007 6:35 pm PT

    Wow...there should be a lot more M rated games for nudity then. Seriously, so many games have mods its not even funny. I've even seen someone showing how to get nudity in the Sims. ESRB didn't complain about that now did they?

  • Ir_Rana

    Posted Mar 28, 2007 4:39 am PT

    He he, loved it, FalconCA.

    I know that it is impossible to play trough several games adequately but "submiting a tape showing the most extreme content ,yadda yaddda yadda" seems far from the ideal. They are giving the companies the choice on what they submit to be rated...

    I think they are also a bunch of hypocrates, blood is blood everyone's got 5 liters of it in their bodies, doesn't matter how much realistic it is being show. What I am trying to say is, if blood and gore aren't material suitable for viewning by children, then it shouldn't be shown at all, as much as unreallist is the blood that appears in Doom, it still is a game not suitable for today's children.The comcept od" your blood is too realistic, we have to rate you M" is just too absurd to conceive. What about " the way the player can draw blood from other characters in the game is too graphical and realistic, we have to rate you M"

  • FalconCA

    Posted Mar 27, 2007 9:19 am PT

    Egotistical Self-Righteous Bastards - ESRB

  • skillzdatkillz0

    Posted Mar 26, 2007 3:18 am PT

    I hate the whole "developers getting in trouble for 3rd party mods" mindset. It's really annoying. The whole topless skin issue is a moot point, blood and gore is more of an issue but even then, you would think that ESRB would actually play the game before slapping a rating on it? Jeez...

  • Wardenb

    Posted Mar 25, 2007 9:59 am PT

    why the hell do they rate things that are not part of the original game, its a BLOOMING MOD !!!

  • Riamo_10

    Posted Mar 25, 2007 9:49 am PT

    @ everyone who saw the graphics comparison vid on gametrailers.com!!
    If you guys saw the two videos on elder scrolls, you can clearly see that the xbox version cannot handle that game. there are sooo many load times on the XBOX its not funny!!!! Look at the extra things they've added on the PS3 version. Before they rated this game on gamespot, the xbox version had the BEST sign beside indicating that this game is best on XBOX but behold it longer is there. Even the people at Bethesda Softworks games said they were massivly rendering the graphics to meet PS3 standards in an interview. You see more horses more people, more clouds, smoother graphics as well brighter. Thats also why on gametrailers the headline said, "The MIGHT Mircosoft Game JUST go PS3 PWNED!!!!!!!" Stop hating and face the facts xbox fans!!! PS3 own hardware comparisons!!!

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