Hidden boobies incite Oblivion rating change [update 1]
by James Ransom-Wiley 
{ May 3rd 2006 at 5:55PM }
The ESRB
has changed the rating of the PC version of Oblivion from T (Teen) to M (Mature). The ratings board enacted
the change because the game contains stronger depictions of violence than what were featured in the content that was
submitted to determine the original rating. But more importantly, the new M-rating is a result of hidden (archived)
topless skin files that can be accessed via a fan-created mod.At this time, it's unclear if a recall will be issued, but the new rating, along with the addition of a "nudity" warning, will be applied to copies of Oblivion that are still on store shelves. It's also possible that Take-Two will force Bethesda to remove the archived files and re-release the game, in turn, regaining the T-rating.
Update: the Xbox 360 version has also been re-rated to M due to "Blood and Gore, Language, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol, Violence" [via ESRB]. [Thanks, Scott]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
krazyman @ May 3rd 2006 6:00PM
I just read this. Hopefully this doesn't turn into another Hot Coffee :0
Paul Gale @ May 3rd 2006 6:02PM
I'm all for equality of females in the community, and part of this is being able to expose their chests equally as males are able to. Videogame boobs in Oblivion? It sounds good to me; let the game be M-Rated.
Paul Gale
1up.com
Hotdrop @ May 3rd 2006 6:09PM
Go ESRB its not linke any one cares about their ratings any way
Yeti @ May 3rd 2006 6:10PM
This is ridiculous. Almost any game can be modded to show nudity. Is the ESRB going to change Barbie's Playhouse Fun rating to "M" because someone figured out how to make Barbie topless?!
DidYouLoseASock @ May 3rd 2006 6:10PM
not again...
In theory, a fan made mod can do anything to a game.
D dogg @ May 3rd 2006 6:11PM
"Go ESRB its not linke any one cares about their ratings any way"
Your right, unless you're the one that has to pay the fine. Btw, the ESRB doing things like this is the BEST DEFENSE agaisnt Washinton.
kleger @ May 3rd 2006 6:13PM
hot ale mod.
vidGuy @ May 3rd 2006 6:15PM
Although this "mod" is a little more ingrained into the actual game files than Hot Coffee was, I think it's more than a little ridiculous that games are being re-rated for a scene or hack that doesn't appear in the game within modification.
Look at movies. DVDs are often released with "Additional scenes not rated" to cover the content of Extras or scenes added in a Director's Cut version.
If it was discovered that you could take a PG-13 movie's DVD, pop it in your computer, extract a file, and run it with a special program to see a scene where the actor says two curse words, is the movie going to be pulled and given an R-rating? Hell, no.
I don't see why games should be any different. Rate them on their content when played as intended.
Darum @ May 3rd 2006 6:15PM
normaly, I'd try to stand up for BethSoft, but if they get in trouble for this, I'm just going to laugh. if they can't learn from Rockstar's mistake, they diserve every bit of trouble they get... provided they get into trouble at all.
Ian @ May 3rd 2006 6:16PM
Actually both were rerated to M:
"The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for the PC and the Xbox 360. (Inital reports indicated that only the PC version of the game had been re-rated.)"
Either way is bullshit, theres not that much blood and the nudity is a mod. Fucking lame.
slave_25637 @ May 3rd 2006 6:16PM
hot skooma....
Mods should not affect the game...
Revadarth @ May 3rd 2006 6:17PM
Take-Two didn't publish Oblivion.
ESRB Ninja @ May 3rd 2006 6:17PM
It's simple. Don't put tits in there and then say oh! I didn't intend blah blah. Just no tits please.
Eric @ May 3rd 2006 6:19PM
I think it's ridiculous that a rating of a game be changed because of a third party mod. If the "exclipt" data isn't created by the developers, than they shouldn't have to suffer from it. It's like suing a blank dvd manufacturer for people putting pirated software on one of their dvd's.
slave_25637 @ May 3rd 2006 6:22PM
to #11, Take-Two owns 2K Games which Co-Published Oblivion with BethSoft.
guano @ May 3rd 2006 6:27PM
Bethesda says they are making a patch that will block the breast in the mod. So I guess it's only the extra blood that the ESRB missed that's changing the rating? I hope they aren't overcompensating because of Hot Cofee.
HotShotX @ May 3rd 2006 6:28PM
"This is ridiculous. Almost any game can be modded to show nudity. Is the ESRB going to change Barbie's Playhouse Fun rating to "M" because someone figured out how to make Barbie topless?!"
That's hilarious, I propose a contest in which groups of people get around to modding a bunch of kids' games to get their 'E' ratings changed to 'M'.
Biggest rating gap crossed wins.
Barbie Horse Adventures Beastiality Patch on the XBox 360 for teh win!
~HotShotX
PaleGringo @ May 3rd 2006 6:29PM
"o noes its teh b00b33z!!!!!!11one"
So... you look at a game like say... Fable? Shoot an arrow hard enough and it can take off your foes' head, blood animated as squirting up through the now vacuous hole that once was a neck. Rated M.
ESIV: Oblivion. Shoot an arrow at somebody, and it conveniently clips into their geometry... no blood, maybe comes out the other side. More to the point, hack and slash a townsperson with a blade and see the thing turna tint of red just to have it fade back to normal in 10 seconds.
"o noes its teh b100dy!!!!!111one"
Or, one person decently skilled in computer programming finds the code that makes leather or fur or whatever they are brassiere's disappear, and supplants them with an artist's conception of mammary glands.
"o noes its teh t0p1355 0rcz0rz!!!!!!11one"
Note to ESRB: *EVERYBODY* has nipples. Build a bridge, and get over it.
TK00 @ May 3rd 2006 6:30PM
They deserve to get in trouble for this, only for being so STUPID and not learning from hot coffee.
>"Look at movies. DVDs are often released with "Additional scenes not rated" to cover the content of Extras or scenes added in a Director's Cut version."
They say that as a disclaimer because the MPAA hasn't reviewed the content. Believe me, if there was a porn scene on the extra disc for Revenge of the Sith, Lucas would his sued disclaimer or not. ;-)
SheriffDane @ May 3rd 2006 6:30PM
they are.
Jecrell @ May 3rd 2006 6:34PM
Isn't the action of revealing hidden boobies a crime?
SUE THE ESRB FOR REVEALING THEM! =P
HotShotX @ May 3rd 2006 6:34PM
"Note to ESRB: *EVERYBODY* has nipples. Build a bridge, and get over it."
Hell, I even have two.
Brandon @ May 3rd 2006 6:34PM
Games no matter what the rating are considered for children, any nudity will instantly be news. The industry needs to say that not all games are for children, and start to have movie style ratings, that are held to the same standards as movies. An M game should be R, that means unlimmited tits, pussy shots, male nudity, whatever they want, same as R, and AO should be XXX, not a pg-13 rating like it is now.
ian @ May 3rd 2006 6:38PM
thats dumb, why should bethesda get flack for a fan made mod.
Darum @ May 3rd 2006 6:40PM
@ 22: because the content was already there, the mod only unlocked it, just like Hot-Coffee.
Darum @ May 3rd 2006 6:46PM
@ 24: oops! i meant 23, sorry!
Hamson @ May 3rd 2006 6:47PM
Are you serious? ESRB needs to realize that these 'mods' are not accesible without the help of a third-party-- NOT associated with the company that developed the game.
I've always heard it's a MUCH bigger hassle to go back into a game and remove the impending code than to make the questioned content inaccessable without the help of third-party tools.
This is just escalating to a point past insanity.
MegaWatts @ May 3rd 2006 6:51PM
Well met.
ymmv @ May 3rd 2006 6:53PM
It shouldnt matter that the content was already there. The only thing that should matter is what the publishers/authors created, not what hackers changed the game into. If some pervert made kiddieporn out of your old child pictures, do you think parents should be accountable or just the pervert?
Scott @ May 3rd 2006 6:57PM
The Xbox 360 version is also rated "M". Although the topless mod doesn't work, the violence was deemed more excessive than previously thought. Check out the ESRB Web site:
http://www.esrb.org/ratings/search.jsp
Darum @ May 3rd 2006 7:01PM
@ 28: that's not the same thing, though! the pervert would be using the photos as basis for his kiddie porn, the mod in question makes accessible, nudity that was already there!
PaleGringo @ May 3rd 2006 7:12PM
You know, if you move the camera just right while you're riding on a horse, you see its anus under its tail.
That's another thing that everybody has. Perhaps they should pull Oblivion from the shelves for that, before somebody makes a topless bestiality mod that could push this into the nether regions of "AO" rated.
How far does the ESRB want to take this?
Cosmos @ May 3rd 2006 7:25PM
Hot Coffee didn't even have nudity, but it earned GTA an AO rating. This is actual frontal nudity, but it only earns an M rating? I don't get it...
james @ May 3rd 2006 7:26PM
this shit is starting to piss me off. STOP CRYING ABOUT A LITTLE BIT OF TITS AND ASS JESUS! How much is this going to cost the publisher/developer just becuase some perverts unlocked some archived skins.
HotShotX @ May 3rd 2006 7:28PM
@30: So, are you saying that underneath all of those clothes, you are not naked?
~HotShotX
Fandel @ May 3rd 2006 7:39PM
because the content was already there, the mod only unlocked it, just like Hot-Coffee.
By your logic, almost every game should be rated M or AO, because most games especially sports games) have nude skins like the one you see in Oblivion. So if someone makes a mod that takes off all the cloths of a character in Madden, or NBA 06, the ESRB should then re-rate the games "M"?
Should the Sims 2 be recalled and rated "M", or outright banned for child nudity because you can create a mob to remove the clothes the characters?
theLoneYoshi @ May 3rd 2006 7:39PM
"3. Go ESRB its not linke any one cares about their ratings any way" - Hotdrop
Now that's the EXACT attitude that has kids playing M rated games and then the parent blames the video game industry for making it. I wonder why the media always blames the vg industry and ESRB. And then you all blame Jack Thompson (though I don't like the guy). Just look at what I quoted.
Mark D. @ May 3rd 2006 7:41PM
Of course the content is there... That's how you make models. YOU NEED TO GIVE THE WOMEN BOOBS SO THAT IT LOOKS REALISTIC. Should they remove all skin textures from boobs, keeping them grayscale? WTF?
Lane @ May 3rd 2006 7:47PM
Not again! It's a freaking mod for god's sake. I'm pretty sure that if your kids smart enough to do that then he's more than smart enough to look at porn on the internet.
Acdbulls @ May 3rd 2006 7:48PM
Thats Bullshit!
Why the developers will be aware of what the midtime hacks can do?
idioteraser @ May 3rd 2006 7:57PM
Fandel the sim mods you are talking about do not unlock anything they just modify it.
The Oblivion unlocks the content already existing. And people you should do the sidequests in the game where you murder people in there sleep. You will see tons of gore in those quests, people being disembowled, rivers of bloods in rooms etc.
Hot Coffee didn't make GTA AO rated due to the nudity it was the simulated backdoor sex for crying out loud.
Zombie Flanders @ May 3rd 2006 7:59PM
We're called mammals because of our mammary glands (nipples).
John Bardinelli @ May 3rd 2006 7:59PM
It's polygons. All just polygons. Go to the beach to see real breasts. Why hasn't the beach been rated M yet?
deathneo @ May 3rd 2006 8:16PM
Who would want to look at Orc boobies??? You gotta be a real nerdy loser to want to see Orc boobies. I don't see why the ESRB is covering it's ass right now. So many other issues that the government needs to fix right now (immigration, Iran, Gas prices etc, etc) I don't think Congress would give a damn about some game with Orc boobies right now......
aka Bitter @ May 3rd 2006 8:29PM
I've got to admit, I'm a "hot cofee" drinker =), but as I ventured into the plane of Oblivion, the sight of burning corpses and severed heads made me wonder how this was rated "T".
Kamalot @ May 3rd 2006 8:32PM
but DOA IV isn't rated 'M'?
?!?!
striegs @ May 3rd 2006 8:36PM
I don't understand the double standard. So guys can take off their shirts in public, whereas women can't? Where's the logic in that kind of sexual discrimination? Aesthetically, a fat man's tits are no different than a woman's, though perhaps slightly hairier.
ZOMG TEH NIPELS! *FAPFAPFAP*
Enough is enough. Either men shouldn't be allowed to expose their chests in public or women should. Either draw the line or erase it. Enough of this pansy bullshit.
vc @ May 3rd 2006 9:14PM
This is really stupid. What a messed-up country we live in.
boylie @ May 3rd 2006 9:14PM
1. modder finds texture files in games program folder
2. modder opens photoshop
3. modder changes the textures on the female characters to be bare chested
4. modder releases mod
5. Bethesda gets in shit
seriously, where is the logic in this? this isn't content that was included in the game that was "unlocked", this is just some texture files that were fucked around with by some modder. i'm with #17 on this one, i'd love to see someone do a topless mod for barbie horse adventure, or better yet, composite some boobs overtop of like tinkerbell in peter pan and see if everyone freaks out the same way they do over games, saying that the content was always there, and was just "unlocked" for the world to see.
GlitchCog @ May 3rd 2006 9:36PM
So if there's a nude IPS patch for Super Mario Bros. out there on the web, does that mean that it needs to get an M rating? It's retarded for third-party patches to effect the rating of a game. It's like drawing penises all over a copy of Goodnight Moon with a Sharpie, then declaring that all copies of the book are pornography and shouldn't be sold to kids.