ESRB Rating Worries (Halo Infinite a T?)

It looks like from Hiddenxperia's latest video, Halo Infinite will be rated T and not M. Is there any way to verify this? It's really worrying. I hope 343 are not purposefully downgrading the game to reach a T, that would be terrible. I was really looking forward to Infinite but this kind of this is very off putting.

I mean how can we really show off the mysteries of Zeta Halo on a T? Makes no sense to me. What would be even sadder would be to show off the mysteries of Zeta Halo in a child friendly way.

What does everyone think?

Sparhawk122 wrote:

The July gameplay reveal gave off the impression that Halo: Infinite is a baby friendly Halo.

I'm pretty sure your fears are well founded.

Holding out a sliver of hope, but yeah... I think we should prepare. There's perhaps some chance of things being changed a little before launch but it's saddening to think.

Halo isn't a kids game and never has been. It's a light M and that's where it should stay.

Kind of reminds me of what happened to action movies in the 90s and 00s. PG-13 ruined so many films.

I don't know where the whole "Halo needs to be rated M for it to be a good game" thing came from, but it's a wild theory.

Also, I'm pretty sure if you did a quick forums search, you'd find at least one other topic with this same theme - might just want to commiserate there.

thetimewarptrio wrote:

I don't know where the whole "Halo needs to be rated M for it to be a good game" thing came from, but it's a wild theory.

Also, I'm pretty sure if you did a quick forums search, you'd find at least one other topic with this same theme - might just want to commiserate there.

It makes more sense to commiserate here since this topic is the newest.

thetimewarptrio wrote:

Sparhawk122 wrote:

thetimewarptrio wrote:

I don't know where the whole "Halo needs to be rated M for it to be a good game" thing came from, but it's a wild theory.

Also, I'm pretty sure if you did a quick forums search, you'd find at least one other topic with this same theme - might just want to commiserate there.

It makes more sense to commiserate here since this topic is the newest.

It also causes forum clutter and scattered ideas. Just a quick forums search reveals these results of pre-existing similar topics.

OneTwoThree

I think people should be allowed to create their own topics even if the topic in point has been mentioned before.

Because why not. It's not hurting anyone.

Halo Jumper 3 wrote:

thetimewarptrio wrote:

I don't know where the whole "Halo needs to be rated M for it to be a good game" thing came from, but it's a wild theory.

Also, I'm pretty sure if you did a quick forums search, you'd find at least one other topic with this same theme - might just want to commiserate there.

Pray tell how is it possible to have the more mature themes of Halo on a T rating? How can the flood exist and not be neutered? How can you show of Zeta Halo properly? How can you give the marines that light bad language that gave them character?

How on earth can you have the horror elements of the franchise appear on a T? Palace of Pain? Imagine how awful and disappointing it would be for things like that to be included in a watered down way just to aim for a lower rating. Extremely sad

Any decision that is made to take away from the game purely to get a T rating is a bad choice. The M related parts of Halo gave it some of it's character.

Something as simple as blood splatter just makes combat more satisfying. Is it essential? No. Does it make the game a little better and more fun? Sure who doesn't like tearing through enemies and seeing the result of their destruction? Removal of small things like this makes the game worse for no good reason

Yup. And multiplayer is 'rumoured' to be free to play too.

We all know what comes from free to play model games.

Onto this I think part of the reason that Halo 4 and Halo 5 were not great Halo games is because there was no flood.

There is no rating for the game, it’s still being worked on and won’t be finished for another few months. The game won’t get its rating until dev is totally finished and the game goes gold. This likely won’t happen until mid October, as the game is likely launching in mid November. So no, the game doesn’t have a rating yet, and people need to calm down and wait.

Halo Jumper 3 wrote:

thetimewarptrio wrote:

I don't know where the whole "Halo needs to be rated M for it to be a good game" thing came from, but it's a wild theory.

Also, I'm pretty sure if you did a quick forums search, you'd find at least one other topic with this same theme - might just want to commiserate there.

Pray tell how is it possible to have the more mature themes of Halo on a T rating? How can the flood exist and not be neutered? How can you show of Zeta Halo properly? How can you give the marines that light bad language that gave them character?

How on earth can you have the horror elements of the franchise appear on a T? Palace of Pain? Imagine how awful and disappointing it would be for things like that to be included in a watered down way just to aim for a lower rating. Extremely sad

Any decision that is made to take away from the game purely to get a T rating is a bad choice. The M related parts of Halo gave it some of it's character.

Something as simple as blood splatter just makes combat more satisfying. Is it essential? No. Does it make the game a little better and more fun? Sure! Who doesn't like tearing through enemies and seeing the result of their destruction? Removal of small things like this makes the game worse for no good reason

"Mature themes?" What are you talking about? There are PLENTY of mature themes in T rated games. HELL, The Sims is rated T and you can do ALL KINDS of mature stuff in The Sims.

The flood existed in HW2 - that was Teen.

Marines "light bad language"? Have you ever been around a marine, or an ex-marine? The stuff that comes out of their mouth in M Halo games is baby talk compared to what real marines say. It doesn't matter if the marine in the game tells someone to "go to hell" or "go to heck", because either way, it's the child version of what an actual marine says.

You can still have horror elements in a T rated game. Have you played Alan Wake? That's a T game, and still has amazing horror elements.

I agree with the blood splatter element, I think that gives the game added fun in a comical manner (not realistic at all though).

Halo fans just seem to want to find the most minuscule thing to whine and complain about before the game even comes to fruition, or has even been fully showcased. The fan base is so embarrassingly entitled anymore, that things like an ESRB rating make them take up arms against a franchise.

Halo Jumper 3 wrote:

thetimewarptrio wrote:

I don't know where the whole "Halo needs to be rated M for it to be a good game" thing came from, but it's a wild theory.

Also, I'm pretty sure if you did a quick forums search, you'd find at least one other topic with this same theme - might just want to commiserate there.

Pray tell how is it possible to have the more mature themes of Halo on a T rating? How can the flood exist and not be neutered? How can you show of Zeta Halo properly? How can you give the marines that light bad language that gave them character?

How on earth can you have the horror elements of the franchise appear on a T? Palace of Pain? Imagine how awful and disappointing it would be for things like that to be included in a watered down way just to aim for a lower rating. Extremely sad

Any decision that is made to take away from the game purely to get a T rating is a bad choice. The M related parts of Halo gave it some of it's character.

Something as simple as blood splatter just makes combat more satisfying. Is it essential? No. Does it make the game a little better and more fun? Sure! Who doesn't like tearing through enemies and seeing the result of their destruction? Removal of small things like this makes the game worse for no good reason

As long as the grunts still spurt blue stuff when you hit the triangle on there heads, I really don’t care.

Here in the UK and Europe, it has always been related 16+ and, to be honest, I really don't understand why it has ever been rated M by the ESRB in the US. Granted CE was always the most gory in the sense of the blood (in some ways it was almost comical how much blood there was in enemies you could fill entire rooms with it) but afterwards it definitely got tamer.

I was playing Reach firefight on MCC the other day and I there wasn't a whole lot of blood on the floor, it was there but definitely not crazy levels. I think the M rating probably stems from the whole 'video games cause violence or bad' vibe from the early 2000s and when politicians used to blame video games from just about everything (and not their own policies and decision making).

I literally was just googling why Halo was rated M and I found this on a parental website

Source: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/game-reviews/halo-the-master-chief-collection/user-reviews/adult:
"Not as bad as I thought it would be
I was skeptical about getting this because it was rated M (and after all, there had to be a reason why it was rated M) But my child convinced me to try it out, so I let him. Then I saw that this was not anymore violent than power rangers(This is just an expression). I think the people who made rated this game did a bad job because this should be rated T. "

Also, in some ways the newer titles were in some ways more violent than the old ones. For instance, Halo 5 may not have had blood but some of the assassination animations were quite brutal.

In summary, I think Halo should always have been rated T and not M. The swearing wasn't even that bad or hard as some other games and it lacks virtually all the other characteristics of M games except 'Violence'. Rating Halo as M puts it in the same pool as Red Dead Redemption and GTA, which is absolutely absurd! Tbf, it's hard for me to take rating boards seriously when games like NBA 2K come out with literal casinos/slot machines and are rated E for everyone.