The controversial Hatred has been rated ‘Adults Only’ in North America by the ESRB.
We have seen quite some controversy around Destructive Creation’s Hatred lately. It was removed on Steam Greenlight after about seven hours, yet it was re-released on Greenlight a day later by the great and mighty Gabe Newell himself. As of right now, it’s also the number one game on Steam Greenlight.
Destructive Creations showing its gratitude towards Gabe Newell.
That Hatred is a violent game shouldn’t come as a surprise since you play as a man who hates the world and decides to go out in a blaze of glory by massacring innocent civilians… It’s basically Grand Theft Auto or Postal stripped from their stories.
The Entertainment Software Rating Board, or the ESRB in short, gave Hatred an Adults Only rating. This is the most extreme rating a game can get, making Hatred the second game ever to get this rating without showing any explicit sexual content.
Development-team Destructive Creations replied to this rating on the game’s forum with the following: “Well, I’m not quite convinced why Hatred got the AO rating while it lacks any sexual content, but it’s still some kind of achievement to have the second game in history getting the AO rating for violence and harsh language only. Even if this violence isn’t really that bad -” ahum… “- and this harsh language is not overused. The guy from ESRB (by the way, very nice, polite and cooperative one!) told me it’s all about ‘the context’ which people they’re testing gameplay video on will see.”
The AO (Adults Only) rating is rarely used, and is described by the ESRB as suitable for ages 18 and up for prolonged scenes of intense violence, graphic sexual content, and/or real money gambling.
Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo have a policy that forbids them to publish Adults Only-rated games on their platforms, meaning we won’t get to see Hatred on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 unless Destructive Creations decides to make some changes to the game, which is highly unlikely since they really stand their ground on where they want this title to go. Valve has never released an Adults Only-rated game on Steam, either.
“I would prefer to get a standard M+ rating, because with the AO rating we will have problems to get to consoles in the future, but on the other hand I think you guys – our fans – would be disappointed with it,” the Destructive Creations developer stated.
What do you think about Hatred? Is the game’s violence acceptable? Let us know in the comments!