Infinite Minigolf released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Steam last
July and, with it being a very tame, family friendly minigolf game, the title was assigned
an E for everyone rating by the ESRB.
However, a few weeks following launch, the title was then mysteriously reassigned with
a Teen rating and also pulled from sale on the Nintendo eStore.
There was a lot of confusion over what happened but the creators Zen Studios eventually helped
fill in some of the blanks over on Twitter, where they explained that a poster in one
of the level's backgrounds caused the age increase and that they were working on removing
this.
The level was then investigated by Kotaku and it looks like they have now found the
offending poster.
Here's a full screen shot of what is believed to have caused the issue...
And here it is zoomed in...
If you haven't spotted it already, you should be able to see large demon with several female
demons around its waist.
It seems very likely that it was this that caused the game to get rated Teen for "suggestive
themes".
Also, here it is again from another angle.
Kotaku have also obtained a statement from Zen Studios' vice president of publishing,
who explains: “Yes, the game was pulled from the eShop
in North America due to the inclusion of some artwork that was placeholder, but somehow
ended up in the game.
Nintendo of America has a policy that if your ratings jump in drastic way they will remove
the game from the store.
This is totally our fault, the art should not have been in the game.
We have submitted a patch that is currently in approval, which removes the art and will
revert our rating back to E.
“We thank the ESRB for catching this error, the art was inappropriate and they did the
right thing in increasing our rating.
I am a parent of young kids and rely on organizations like the ESRB to give me an indication of
suitable content – so I fully support their decision.
We look forward to the return of Infinite Minigolf on the NOA eShop very soon.”
So, from this statement it is clear that this art was not even supposed to be in the game
in the first place and that no blame at all is being put on the ESRB.
It also highlights an interesting point about how the Nintendo store operates and how that,
if a game's rating increases, Nintendo's policy dictates that it then be removed from sale.
For reference, Infinite Minigolf has not been pulled from sale on any other platform.
Some of you may be wondering, however, how something like this could even end up happening
in the first place.
The answer to this lies in the ESRB submission process and how this relies on the publishers
to accurately detail the content in the game, rather than the ESRB actually playing the
game themself and scouring the full thing for anything that could be inappropriate.
The ESRB website details the submission process in detail and explains how there are two different
processes depending on whether the game is released physically or digital-only.
For physical releases, publishers are required to not only fill out a questionnaire about
the game's content but also create a DVD highlight real, which displays all key parts of the
game.
From this, we can see that if a publisher was to mistakenly forget to include something,
then errors like this would be bound to happen.
However, this isn't exactly what happened here.
You see, Infinite Minigolf was only released digitally and this has a much simpler submission
process.
For digital titles, publishers are only required to complete a short, multiple-choice questionnaire
and a rating is then automatically handed out based on the answers selected.
This process is all very simple and automated and was created due to the increasing number
of digital games and apps.
It would have been through this method that Zen Studios' didn't disclose the placeholder
poster.
What isn't known, though, is how the ESRB became aware of the content in question.
It's possible that a player saw the poster and complained, but the ESRB has not currently
commented on this.
Whatever the case, the poster is now being removed and the age rating should soon be
back to its original E rating.
Furthermore, the title should soon also be available for purchase again on the Nintendo
store.