Bethsoft asks Big Download and other sites to pull all Fallout 3 trailers [Update]

Posted Oct 27th 2008 8:30PM by John Callaham
Filed under: Culture, RPG, Fallout 3

It's just a few more hours until the release of Fallout 3 but rather than focusing just on that long awaited event, developer and publisher Bethesda Softworks has got a last minute monkey wrench thrown at it. Big Download and other web sites were sent this email late this evening written by the publisher's PR head Pete Hines:

In connection with ESRB's advertising guidelines, you are instructed to remove immediately any of our Fallout 3 trailers from your website, pending further notice.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

That's it. No other explanation was made. We have emailed both Pete Hines as well as the ESRB ratings board to find out more. In the meantime we will comply and remove all Fallout 3 trailers from Big Download's site. This isn't the first time that Bethsoft and the ESRB have had issues. A couple of months after the release of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, the ESRB re-rated the game from "T' to "M" because they felt the depiction of violence was more than what the original rating suggested. A topless female character texture, accessed only through third party software, also contributed to the rating change. (Thanks to our sister site Joystiq for the above picture)

Update: An ESRB rep told us it does not comment on their enforcement actions and referred us back to Bethesda Softworks. Hines also emailed back but said they also will not comment on the specifics of their request.

Gallery: Fallout 3

Tags: bethesda-softworks, breaking, fallout-3

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Are they going to jump from an 'M' rating to an 'AO'?

And the other question is : How in the heck are 17+ year olds not considered "adult", anyway?Posted at 10:31PM on Oct 27th 2008 by Dogmeat

^ I'm sure the game it still a solid 'M'. 'AO' is still considered suicidal by publishers unfortunately; though 'AO' wouldn't really fit in with the Fallout universe anyway. I think the issue was that the trailer itself wasn't properly rated. Anyway, I agree with you, even being an old fogy in my late 20s, I think that mid to late teens are ready to handle mature content. Heck, I played very controversial games like Phantasmagoria, Carmageddon , and Mortal Combat in my youth and I honesty think that it was beneficial to my development. How can you have a moral stance against something you know nothing about. I remember getting points for running over pedestrians and seeing the rape scene in Phantasmagoria and yes I had a slight cocked smile from seeing something I wasn't supposed to. But there was also this new pang in the back of my head because I recognized those things as wrong. Children are curious about sex and gore for a reason, they area part of life and kids want to understand them. Give them some credit, they're not as stupid or malleable as people seem to think, and let them develop naturally.

...bysmittyPosted at 8:13AM on Oct 28th 2008 by bysmitty