EL33TONLINE: News tag archive: elspa

In a bit of news that is sure to surprise nary a reader, Nintendo’s lineup of casual titles has dominated the first-half of 2009 in the UK in terms of software sales, as hard-hitting titles on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC struggle to keep up, according to information released by Chart Track via ELSPA (Entertainment & Leisure Software Publishers Association).

Leading the list of top selling games in the UK is Wii Fit, which has managed to claim a number of weekly chart topping sales figures since its release last year, while Wii Play and Mario Kart Wii do their part to form 72% of the top five games’ sales volume, reaching a combined 1.65 million units sold.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village sits at No. 4, while the PS3-exclusive Killzone 2 follows up at No. 5. And Resident Evil 5?

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The UK’s Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has decided that the PAN European Game Information (PEGI) age rating system will become the sole ratings solution for videogames in the UK, denying the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) to become the UK’s lone age rating system for both games and film.

While the BBFC stated that a single, unified organisation would be the easiest route for parents to find out about a particular game’s age rating, The Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) argued that such an arrangement would not be suited to games, and heavily promoted the adoption of PEGI for the UK’s game ratings needs, as that system has already been adopted by most of Europe, and has been in use since 2003.

ELSPA general director Mike Rawlinson said in a statement regarding the decision by the DCMS: “The Government has made absolutely the right decision for child safety. By choosing PEGI as the single classification system in the UK, British children will now get the best possible protection when playing video games either on a console or on the internet.”

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