The ESRB Looks at Dead or Alive: Paradise, Admits Error

The March launch date of Tecmo's Dead or Alive: Paradise is nearly upon us, and, beyond all the game trailers we've already seen, the ESRB and its rating are here to provide more details. While most of the description was what we could have expected, from both the title and the and ESRB, the review ended on a rather subjective note, saying that, "The game contains a fair amount of 'cheesy,' and at times, creepy voyeurism-especially when users have complete rotate-pan-zoom control; but the game also contains bizarre, misguided notions of what women really want (if given two weeks, paid vacation, island resort)-Paradise cannot mean straddling felled tree trunks in dental-floss thongs."

Apparently, this report was posted "in error," and replaced with another one. "The rating summary for Dead or Alive Paradise was posted to our website in error, and we have since replaced that version with the corrected one," Eliot Mizrachi, ESRB's spokesman, stated. "We recognize that the initial version improperly contained subjective language and that issue has been addressed."

He further added that, "Our intention with rating summaries is to provide useful, detailed descriptions of game content that are as objective and informative as possible. However they are ultimately written by people and, in this case, we mistakenly posted a rating summary that included what some could rightfully take to be subjective statements. We sincerely regret the error and will work to prevent this from happening again in the future."

Being among the first ones to post the ESRB's description, as well as mention its change, Kotaku contacted Tecmo Koei to see if the company had anything to do with the modification, but it looks like this wasn't the case at all. "Tecmo has not reached out to the ESRB regarding the description, so the decision to remove/update was entirely their call," Tecmo representatives told the gaming site.

"While we will not deny the fact that this title offers voyeuristic appeal, we do not mention or use phrases such as 'creepy,' 'dental-floss thongs,' 'bizarre' or 'misguided notions' in any part of our ESRB rating submission materials," the publisher explained. "Upon reviewing the submission materials (both text and video), the ESRB defines those descriptions."