Rocksteady recently revealed that "Batman: Arkham Knight" received an "M" rating from the ESRB.
The game studio was surprised to get a rating that will only allow mature players aged 17 and older to play the game, since the first two installments of the "Batman" video game franchise, namely "Arkham Asylum" and "Arkham City," both got "T for Teen" ratings.
IGN talked with "Arkham Knight" game director Sefton Hill to ask him what the studio feels about the "M" rating. The game director stated that he and the rest of the development team were shocked to find out the rating for the game.
"From our point of view, we never wrote it or made it with a rating in mind," Hill said. "We never did that in the previous two games ... We just felt that this is the story that we really wanted to tell. In terms of creating the story, with such strong characters, sometimes they lead you in interesting directions."
However, Hill also explained that the studio made the darkest moments featured in the past "Arkham" games even more sinister.
"It's unavoidable that some bad stuff is going to happen. But that doesn't mean we changed our approach. We're not including gratuitous blood or swearing. We want to deliver a true end with no compromises, and it takes us to some dark places," the game director said.
Also, the game developer admitted that they received an email from publisher Warner Bros. wherein several scenes that could possibly cause problems with the ratings board were pointed out. At first, Hill thought that they would be asked to cut those scenes, but those were the key scenes of the game. Good thing Warner Bros. let them do whatever they want in the last installment of the "Batman: Arkham" series.
Still, the game developer is expecting to lose a chunk of their possible players since they will have a limited age group to market on.
"Batman: Arkham Knight" will be released to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows beginning June 2.
