Bad for your PEGIs
I’m not lovin’ the new suite of PEGI logos. Not one bit. Whilst the BBFC logos are clearly an influence, PEGI have opted to retain the square profile whilst injecting the candy colours. A great deal of thought has obviously gone into them and this is just a personal opinion, formed without access to any of the research I’d hope went into their creation.
All the fun but fair - PEGI warns the kids
My problem with them, neat as they are and carefully grouped into young, early teen (ish) and adult, is that they are no longer distinctive. Against the brightly coloured or intricately illustrated game packs, these logos blend in a little too neatly which reduces their admonitory purpose.
Designing a classification system is more than just an exercise in branding, it has a task to perform in raising awareness of the suitability of the product. It’s not merely about recognising that these logos are from PEGI or BBFC but rather what PEGI and BBFC are actually for.
BBFC logos do the colour thing of course and they suffer from a similar problem but, in their defence, they are at least in varying, traffic sign shaped blocks.
For me, PEGI’s old monochromatic suite was a stark contrast to the lure of the beautiful colours. If you are too young, they seemed to say, don’t even think about picking me up. These new designs, on the other hand, look too tasty – especially that juicy red one.
I’ve always wondered, why are some games classified by BBFC, and others by PEGI?
Ive been to the BBFC Headquarters in London, and they didnt know!
Shouldnt they all be classified by one body, to avoid bias?
Well part of the answer would be that PEGI is European and BBFC is (as the name suggests) British. I’m surprised they didn’t know that
I’m not entirely sure whose decision it is as to whether or not the BBFC rate the game. From a publishers point of view they have already submitted it to PEGI so that it can be rated for the rest of the European market so why they then need to get a BBFC rating is beyond me. BBFC rated games are distributed only in the UK and PEGI rated ‘UK’ games can be distributed anywhere within Europe. Coincidentally when a UK version of a game is rated by both the BBFC and PEGI the PEGI rated version cannot be distributed within the UK and has to carry a “Not for sale in the UK” line on the back of box!