Posted in: Games, Movies, Video Games | Tagged: entertainment, games, Hatred, Steam, valve, video games

Hatred Is Rated AO In US And Canada – May Not Be Available For Purchase

Since yesterday, we've been dealing with classification issues pertaining to Hotline Miami 2 and it has sent many tongues wagging. If you are at all active in the gaming conversation, Australia giving the indie game an RC rating has spawned quite a debate online.

Now it's the US and Canada's turn. The ESRB have put an AO (adult only) rating on the controversial title Hatred which lets players go on public shooting sprees. The game has had a diverse and complicated conversation surrounding it since it was first announced and this is just the latest twist in a long journey of turns. Speaking on the site's forums, one of the developers appeared somewhat confused by the news saying:

Well, I'm not quite convinced why Hatred got AO rating while it lacks any sexual content, but it's still some kind of achievement to have the second game in history getting AO rating for violence and harsh language only. Even if this violence isn't really that bad and this harsh language isn't overused,

AO ratings are very rare and perhaps the most well known example is Manhunt 2. The classificaiton means that the game won't be distributed to stores or on consoles. That is not a surprise though. The game wasn't going to find a home on either I don't think. What is interesting now though is seeing what Valve are going to do about the game on Steam.

Famously, Hatred was pulled from the service's Greenlight page, before owner Gabe Newell himself stepped in to reinstate the game. Currently, Steam don't provide AO games on their service, but the owner of the company has publicly allowed the game to grow on their platform to this point. It leaves Valve in a sticky position as to what they are going to do next. If they do allow a game onto the service with an AO rating, it could create a very tricky floodgate for the company. At the moment it looks unlike the service will provide the game, but that could change.

I'm going to be watching this very closely.

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