Bethesda asks sites to remove Fallout 3 trailers due to 'ESRB advertising guidelines'

by Ross Miller on Oct 27th 2008 8:54PM

On the eve of Fallout 3's launch, Bethesda VP of Public Relations and Marketing Pete Hines has sent an email to our sister site Big Download, Shacknews and presumably others. Game Videos no longer has the trailers, although other gameplay clips still remain; as of this writing, Game Trailers still has the trailers online. Here's the full email:

In connection with ESRB's advertising guidelines, you are instructed to remove immediately any of our Fallout 3 trailers from your website, pending further notice. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

We're as confused as you are. We've reached out to Bethesda for more information.

Source

Tags: advertising, bethesda, Bethesda-Game-Studios, Bethesda-Softworks, breakingnews, censor, esrb, fallout, fallout-3, js-twitter, PC, PS3, RPG, trailers, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (47)

Didn't 3D Realms run afoul of the ESRB on this same issue?

Yeah. I believe it has to do with proper age verification on M-rated game-videos.

Wait, you mean that little screen that says "Stop, minors! First you must lie about your age!"?

Wow

Ya, Mr. Khan, all the times I've watched videos online, I've never been born after 1930.

did you know that everyone in the world that plays video games were born on january 1st?

Lies and slander!! I was born on January 2nd.

noooo.

been singing the song from the official trailer all day!

more please!

Part of me is wishing this is a prank that was orchastrated by a 12 year old that went too far.

Been playing this game for the last 2 hours and loving it!

Just tell me...how awesome is it?

SO awesome!

Is it better on the 360 or the PC?

Even though I haven't played it I can say with certainty it will be the PC. It will have the best graphics of the 3 versions, and considering what the community did with Oblivion, expect to see HUNDREDS of amazing mods and tweaks that will make the game a lot better on the PC. With that said though, still getting it for 360, cause my PC sucks and it's not connected to a huge TV :D

Of course the PC version will be better, of course depending on if your PC has enough power. And as noted, there will be tons of mods for it, as with GTA4 and other games.

I wish more console games would have mod support like UT3 for PS3.

Damn, it's times like this I wish I lived in America, but I guess it leaves me with more time to play Fable 2.

...*sob*.

awesome avatar, WRE

Franklin's the man

I have it on the PS3, but only because that's the copy that Bethesda sent me. I write game reviews for my college paper so I sent out some letters and this morning Fallout 3 for the PS3 shows up on my doorstep.

It is as good as Oblivion! But it's much smaller. And everything in the damn game is either gray or brown. And you can't really "go anywhere," since much of the time is spend in tunnels. And there are many places above ground where you may as well be in a tunnel due to the collapsed (gray and/or brown) walls everywhere. And you have to play it as an FPS since the VATS is basically charged auto-aiming bullet time. Which the computer doesn't use. And you can count the number of big towns on one hand. And you're still shoehorned into the typical Good/Neutral/Evil dialogue selections. And there's only about 10 different enemy types. And it's mind-numbingly easy. And the graphics (on 360, at least) are dated. And the radio stations loop themselves every 5 minutes or so.

But you *can* make a gun that shoots mutilated torsos! And still, it's better than Fallout Tactics.

I just got finished playing the game four about 5 hours straight. The game is really a masterpiece. There are some graphical and technical issues with the PS3 version but none of them took away from the actual gaming experience.

I was more immersed in Fallout 3 for 5 hours than I have yet to be in Dead Space or Far Cry 2. Honestly, I didn't like Oblivion at all so I wasn't expecting much. I have never played a Fallout game before this one but once I understood how to use the controls to my advantage the game got allot more fun.

There are some AI issues, aliasing, artifacts, textures and sound glitches that I noticed in the PS3 version. Both my good friend and I experienced a bug that caused the game to freeze prior to the goat test. Simply loaded up the auto save and sat in a different seat- problem solved.

Mr. Miller, I just came on here to say hilarious image. Good work sir.

ESRB requires a 5 second 'descriptive rating' logo before game videos. ... Even if the trailer doesn't show gameplay. They've become a lot more aggressive with game advertisement sites recently, even requiring videos from years ago to adhere to their ever changing policy.

Bungie had a issue like this with Halo 3 on their website. I remember them talking about that. I imagine once they re-encode the videos with the ratings screen everything will be fine.

Why? Sounds like the GTA 4 fiasco.

I kind of don't like how a self-managing company has this much power. Shouldn't we be leaving censorship of trailers to the government?

O_o

Great idea, let the government censor our media! you know, kind of like Soviet Russia, Cuba, Venezuela, etc.

Think of it this way though, would you rather have elected officials censoring us or a private company? Isn't the ESRB even for-profit?

No, I would rather have elected officials trying to do the jobs that they're supposed to be doing since they're unable to accomplish even those tasks. Once justice has been established, domestic tranquility is insured, the general welfare (as intended by the Framers, not today's definition of the word) is promoted, and the country is adequately defended (secure borders, safe streets, etc.), then come and talk to me about the government regulating video games in any way.

Fuck, NO. Government is the last group hat should have power to censor media.

Also, the company only has power over THEIR IP being used in a fashion that is not in accordance with the ESRB's advertising guidelines.

I say, fuck the ESRB completely. Same with the Comics Code Authority.

ESRB is entirely voluntary. If Bethesda wants it can quit any time and ignore them.

Though of course, if game firms don't have some voluntary guidelines in place then the likelyhood greatly increases that the government WILL step in and regulate.

The general feeling in caplitalism is that markets should regulate themselves, and governments should only step in when necessary. Though as we've seen recently.. that doesn't always work out so well...

Has anyone under 18 ever put their real age on those video verification things? Seriously!

sometimes I get close...

I'm over 18 and I don't bother putting my real age. It's too much of a hassle to search down the dropdowns for my real birthday so I just put whatever.

I once did to see if they actually did anything or if it was just a joke. It kicked me back to the homepage and I went back and lied.

OMFG! WHAT THE SHIT! WHAT HAS THE INTERNET COME TO?!

i'm thirty something, but i'm sure not gonna waste 20 seconds every time i want to watch a 30 second clip by selecting my correct month, date and year.

So now I'm always born on the first of january, sometime before 1960

I love the sites that have fun with it. Not usually mature game trailers, but places like Stone Brewing Co. website. The last year at the bottom is "Older Than Beer." They know people are checking.

Lets just say a lot of 99 year olds are interested in the latest game videos.

Crap, forgot to hit reply to the comment above.

That picture will never get old.

By the Way everybody this game got 9.6 on IGN U.S
and a 9.5 on IGN AU (360 version)

They've been real pricks recently.
The embargo date on reviews is right at release, which is ridiculous.

Hey, not having any reviews about before its in the shops only makes us wary and suspicious, you assholes.

This is the way it should be
No exclusive reviews
No early reviews
Fox only
Final Destination

Couldn't agree more. THere seems to be a trend in reviews...the earlier they come out, the higher they are. This is no coincidence, the magazines/sites most likely to give high marks (or who can be bribed) are given the game first by many developers. The embargo, while less beneficial to the developer is definitely better for the consumer in the long run.

ESRB wants to give all the crappy games a fair chance this year. How kind of them. No marketing for you, Fallout 3!

Best websites are those that dont even kick you back if you enter the wrong date they just dont do anything.

Theyre trying to tell you "you have to be over 18 dumb@$$, lie about your age"

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Bethesda asks sites to remove Fallout 3 trailers due to 'ESRB advertising guidelines'

Reader Comments (47)

Posted: Oct 27th 2008 8:58PM strictnein said

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