Developer Epic Games is introducing age ratings for all Fortnite experiences, including Creative mode content. This new system will go into effect on November 14th and is designed to help parents and guardians make informed decisions about what content their children play.
The age ratings will be provided by the International Age Rating Coalition, collaborating with organisations such as the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) and the Pan-European Game Information (PEGI).
According to Epic in a statement, “When you are ready to publish your island to Fortnite, you will fill out the IARC content rating questionnaire before you submit your island to be published and reviewed by Epic moderators. When the questionnaire is complete, you will receive an age-based IARC rating for the content of your island along with region-specific ratings from IARC-participating rating authorities. These ratings will automatically be applied and prominently displayed prior to access.”
Creating a safer metaverse experience
“Content sensitivities vary by region and IARC’s scalable, global solution provides parents and players with trusted guidance from ESRB (North America), PEGI (Europe), ACB (Australia), USK (Germany), ClassInd (Brazil), and more depending on where they live,” said Epic. “Participating rating authorities may modify one or more of the ratings assigned based on their own review of the experience once it’s been published.”
As Fortnite expands into a multi-game ecosystem, offering a wide variety of games and experiences from both Epic and third-party creators, the IARC rating system provides parents and players with reliable ratings about how they play.
Epic says the IARC questionnaire will be available in the Creator Portal from October 16th, and has urged creators to, “Go in and get assigned rating information for your islands.” As for unrated islands, Epic says they will be delisted on November 14th.
The news comes during a particularly tumultuous time for Epic, which recently announced that it was cutting roughly 16 per cent of its workforce.
Isa Muhammad is a writer and video game journalist covering many aspects of entertainment media including the film industry. He's steadily writing his way to the sharp end of journalism and enjoys staying informed. If he's not reading, playing video games or catching up on his favourite TV series, then he's probably writing about them.
