Nintendo President Addresses Content Regulations
Nintendo President and CEO Shuntaro Furukawa addressed content regulations in the industry and Nintendo’s own approach to the subject in a recent Q&A session during the company’s annual meeting of shareholders.
In light of recent changes, discussions, and controversises on the subject, it’s very interesting to have a comment from Nintendo on the matter.
The question was:
Recently, there have been concerns regarding depictions of entertainment, and we hear that other companies not only require age ratings from third parties such as CERO and ESRB but also based on their own regulations. How will Nintendo deal with this for software released on its platforms?
Here’s Shuntaro Furukawa’s response:
With regard to games on our consoles, assuming they obtain a rating from the third party organisations, we want the customer to understand the content of the software and the target age through objective information. We believe that running a platform and selecting which software is approved for sale or not in an arbitrary manner would impede the diveristy and fairness of games.Additionally, our game consoles have a function for parents to restrict use by setting passwords, so it’s possible to prevent displaying content that may be harmful to children.
Nintendo’s inclusion of parental controls on the Switch has been a clear factor since that adorable Bowser and Bowser Jr. section in the Switch intro way back when, and it’s good to see it serving them well. What do you think of Nintendo’s approach to the shifting environment of content regulations?
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