Why didn’t Neo*Geo games have ESRB ratings back in the day?

[butthurt coconut]

It was awesome seeing Neo Geo Pocket Color on EB and Softare Etc. shelves for that year or part of a year when it was a thing.

NGPC is the only SNK system I ever saw on retail shelves during my lifetime. lol

I wanted one, but I had no money of my own at that age. Same story with the Sega Saturn.

 

[KGRAMR]

ESRB is optional, but being a big corporate entity they are able to offer perks that wouldn't be available otherwise. Now I'm sure that they've wrangled the big box retail giants into exclusivity contracts where they are only able to sell ESRB rated games and not able to sell ones that are not. Non-rated games still exist in the US but primarily on PC. It would also effect import ability. These agreements likely is what caused ESRB to be adopted in Canada and Mexico and now is being used in South America and South East Asia as well.

The ESRB system was voluntary, though all of the console manufacturers and certain retailers would eventually come to require the ratings.*

Considering that SNK was both the primary console manufacturer and game publisher for the system, in addition to being primarily concerned with the japanese market first, it’s understandable that compliance with the new ESRB rating system would have remained a lower priority in 1994 (lack of market share in the US notwithstanding). As noted by an above poster, the Neo Geo Pocket Color games would eventually be sold with the ratings on US store shelves circa 1999.

The japanese CERO rating system wouldn’t debut until around 2002 so it makes sense that the japanese home system, Neo Geo CD, Neo Geo Pocket, and Neo Geo Pocket Color titles would lack a retail CERO rating as well.

*sources:

Frequently Asked Questions | ESRB Ratings

Frequently Asked Questions are posted here. If you still have some other questions, we would like to answer them for you.

www.esrb.org

Rating System｜CERO (official homepage)

CEROのRating Systemです

www.cero.gr.jp

**obligatory:
ESRGoob

Although i must say that the introduction of the ESRB and CERO kind of fucked up what type of stuff game developers could show back then.

 

[Neo Alec]

Although i must say that the introduction of the ESRB and CERO kind of fucked up what type of stuff game developers could show back then.

It also allowed devs to start including more mature content as long as they were okay with the higher rating. There never used to be much swearing at all in games, but now even Need for Speed games are full of it.

 

[HellioN]

It also allowed devs to start including more mature content as long as they were okay with the higher rating. There never used to be much swearing at all in games, but now even Need for Speed games are full of it.

Yeah, you know it's kinda become the normal thing when you see Nintendo allowing stuff like that on their consoles.

 

[city41]

It also allowed devs to start including more mature content as long as they were okay with the higher rating. There never used to be much swearing at all in games, but now even Need for Speed games are full of it.

Just look at SNES Mortal Kombat 1 vs 2. Overall I think the rating system has been positive.