The results of the Federal Trade Commission's latest research into the marketing of violent entertainment to children is a major win for the video game industry.
Just-released numbers show that the FTC's underage secret shoppers were only able to purchase M-rated games 20% of the time, a massive improvement over last year's 42% success rate.
Amid heightened parental concerns following last week's high-profile release of Grand Theft AUto IV, the news couldn't come at a better time for the video game biz.
DVD sellers, on the other hand were spanked by the FTC for selling R-rated and unrated movies to underage buyers about half of the time. Theaters allowed the FTC's secret shoppers into R-rated movies 35% of the time, making the game industry's results all the more impressive.
New in this year's report are individual ratings for retailers. The FTC results indicate that GameStop is doing the best job of retail ratings enforcement, turning away 94% of underage buyers. Wal-Mart and Best Buy scored high marks as well, with 82% and 80% turn-away rates, respectively.
Listed below are the FTC's video game secret shopper results, listed by retailer (number indicated is successful purchases of M-rated games by underage buyers):
Game Stop/EB Games - 6%
Wal-Mart - 18%
Best Buy - 20%
Toys R Us - 27%
Target - 29%
Kmart - 31%
Circuit City - 38%
Hollywood Video - 40%
A graph posted on the FTC website (and seen at left) traces a steep decline in underage sales since 2000, when secret shoppers were successful 85% of the time.
We'll offer reactions from the video game industry and other stakeholders as we receive them.
Comments
Re: BREAKING - FTC Study Shows Massive Improvement in Video
Ok after reading this and playing video games since "mothers against VVG" were around if they even exisit anymore, but this is something as being a parent and avivid gamer this is something that brings sorrow and happiness at the same time cause this tells me that we "need" to be govern by the government to what I expose my kid too..?? I mean come on there is more stuff out there that our kids are exposed to then violent games. Drugs? When was the last time we heard a report on how many potheads are under 13? But how many under 13 kids can get a M-rated game? More of my tax dollar spent foolishy on things that have no bearing on my kid or the future for that matter. In closing glad that at lest we are getting some "brownie" points on the frontlines of this.
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
I must... MUST... act... CHILDISH!
Naa Naa! :P
Whew! I feel better now. :)
Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/05/secretshop.shtm
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
You know, when I worked retail I absolutely hated not letting kids buy M rated games and got chewed out by a few parents for making them come into the store so they could buy the game for their kid. Never realized just how important it was. I considered it to be harmful to gaming, rather than helping gaming. Weird how perspectives change, isn't it?
Read the summary I posted. Movies were about 50% Music 70% I think.
As for games, Walmart and Best Buy held us back.
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
EZK's link (http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/05/secretshop.shtm) has all that info.
They will completely disregard this study.
No one pays attention to stuff like this when 'protecting the children' is on the line.
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
JT will just add the words "at Circuit City" rather than Gamestop/Best Buy
I mean, remember when every intelligence agency in the US said "Iran is not capable of building nuclear arms and has abandoned research on such weapons" and then every chicken hawk republican was flabbergasted for 10 minutes then went right back to talking about nuking iran? Well, same thing here.
They are not known for being rational or logical.
The reason why BB and Wal-Mart held us back is because of their hiring practices. They get people who have little knowledge and even less care about what they are selling, and push the almighty dollar above all else. BB will maybe put a notice in an annual letter about enforcing the ESRB policy, but hammer in to the staff that they have to sell whatever they can every day. So between the application of policy and the lackluster staff, it's no surprise on the numbers.
Just Joking! My parents have to see all games that I buy anyways. I wish that the industry didn't have to do these secret shopping reports at all and could just count on parents to do their job, but there are so many uninformed parents out there.
O well.
Game industry:1 Game haters:0
We rule!
When I was 16 i got carded for a House of Pain cd....It was an uber FAIL!
@ TheEdge
its more like Game Industry: 9,234,567,602 Game hater: 0
In other news, you suck Hollywood Video!
I mean, you could at least have put a name. The very very least.
Unfortunately, and I hate to be the downer here, we can count on Senator Yee, Senator Clinton (who should drop out of the race), and Jack Thompson, among others, to either ignore this report or spin the report.
They'll also completely ignore the dismal failure of DVD and movie ticket sales...
Ability to buy:
Target
Games: 29%
Movies: 65% (R-rated)
Music: 60%
Best Buy:
Games: 20%
Movies: 62%
Music: 53%
Kmart:
Games: 31%
Movies: 47% (20% for unrated)
Music: 17%
Any idea why Walmart isn't on the list for music sales? I thought they were a really big player when it came to music. Or does Walmart not carry PAL music?
"I wonder if they will eventually target smaller/regional chains, like Play ‘n’ Trade"
Usually when the full report is made available, it breaks it down by "National retailers vs. Small independant retailers" and things like "retail chain vs. media specific chain (like BlockBuster or HMV)".
Walmart is huge for music sales as far as physical stores (comes in behind iTunes and Amazon by a lot for actual sales), but last I heard they only sell family friendly versions of CDs. So while a heavy metal CD at Best Buy would have the warning on it and some profanity the Walmart one wouldn't have the label and would have the lyrics suddenly cut out in places on the CD.
JT alleges its all a conspiracy by the games industry to sell games and make profit yet GAMESTOP the DEDICATED GAME STORE was BEST!
the worst were the big multipurpose stores like walmart etc.
So will JT get off take twos back now? turns out the real culprits are walmart etc all along! If everyone followed the practives of gamestop that would be amazing!
It's good to see games so low, but I have to add my voice to the ones that don't think this will sway the anti-games crowd at all. They will not care that little Jimmy can go buy R-rated or unrated movies every other try, they'll just care that on 3 out of 50 tries he can buy an M-rated game at xyz store. They aren't in it for the children or else they would care, they just don't like games because they didn't grow up with them and find games to be evil because of not understanding them. They ignore movies and music because they had these things and know they aren't bad, so the high rate of success for kids buying movies they shouldn't be able to is fine, but anything short of 0% for kids buying M-rated games is unacceptable to them.
Walmart does not carry PAL music. So they would not be a part of the sting.
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
"Any idea why Walmart isn’t on the list for music sales? I thought they were a really big player when it came to music. Or does Walmart not carry PAL music?"
In short, no they don't carry PAL music. If an album has an explict and a non-explict version, they'll carry the later. If it only has an explict lyrics version, they won't carry it.
This is a good start, however. We shouldn't be satisfied until we get all these numbers statistically insignificant from 0%,which for Gamestop may already be the case (I haven't looked at the raw numbers yet).