Please support Game Informer. Print magazine subscriptions are less than $2 per issue
Batman: Arkham Knight Tagged With ‘M For Mature’ Rating According To Rocksteady
While you won’t be able to find the rating on the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) website yet, we know that Batman: Arkham Knight has received an “M for Mature” rating. Previous titles in the series (Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, Arkham Origins, and Arkham Origins: Blackgate) received “T for Teen” ratings.
The news comes by way of an IGN interview with Rocksteady founder Sefton Hill. Hill says that the team didn’t set out to achieve a specific rating. ”We never did that in the previous two games... We just felt that this is the story that we really wanted to tell,” he says.
Hill navigated the ratings issue earlier in the game’s development. Conversations were had with both Warner Bros. and DC in order to set the direction for the game, which features a mysterious figure known as the Arkham Knight.
When the title is released on June 2, it will close out Rocksteady’s trilogy of titles (Warner Bros. Montreal handled Batman: Arkham Origins). For more, check out our coverage hub from the April 2014 issue.
Our Take
Given Batman’s popularity and the history of the franchise (along with the commercial ramifications of paring off consumers that can't purchase M-rated games), it wouldn’t have been at all surprising had Warner pushed Rocksteady to tone Arkham Knight down. It’s a great sign that the three parties came together and agreed to push forward as planned.
If anything, that should give fans confidence that Rocksteady will be closing out the trilogy how it wants to. I’m even more excited now, not because of the rating, but because the publisher allowed the developer to maintain artistic vision.
I’d like to ask you to support Game Informer’s continued coverage of games with a subscription. For less than two dollars per issue, we mail you a full year of 10 print magazines, each with cover stories and preview features filled with exclusive details about the most exciting upcoming games. We profile and interview game creators. We look back on the rich history of gaming, and we celebrate what’s next.
Here on the website, we offer much of our content for free, including game reviews, daily news, videos, event coverage, and more – all with minimal ads.
We do so with a small editorial team, alongside contributing paid writers from around the world – over 65 individuals from 9 countries around the world, just in the last couple of years.
It’s not possible without support.
In a time when game makers and games coverage have faced hard struggles and layoffs, the future of this 30+ year magazine and community is at risk. Our new standalone magazine subscription is the number one way you can keep us alive – and we believe you’ll get a pretty fantastic gaming magazine in your mailbox every few weeks for your trouble.
Thank you.
