The Pan-European Game Information (PEGI) system is expanding its age ratings to address interactive features, not just content. New criteria will assign higher age ratings to games with loot boxes (PEGI 16/18), in-game purchases (PEGI 12/18), addictive design mechanics (PEGI 7/12), and unrestricted player communication (PEGI 18).
These changes will significantly impact games like EA's FC series, which may see its rating rise to PEGI 16 due to its virtual card packs. The updates aim to better inform parents about online interaction risks and monetization, and will apply to new games submitted from June 2024 onward.
The main topics covered are the expansion of PEGI rating criteria, the specific new interactive risk categories, the impact on major game franchises, and the regulatory context for these changes.
The Pan-European Game Information (PEGI) body previously assigned its age ratings based on the presence of sex, drugs, violence, bad language, and fear. Now it’s adding four new options that tie age suitability to interactive features, like rating games that contain loot boxes as unsuitable for children under 16.
PEGI’s new age ratings will restrict FC 27 to kids over 16
Video game age ratings are being revised in Europe in an attempt to address “online interaction risks,” including player communications and paid in-game content.
Video game age ratings are being revised in Europe in an attempt to address “online interaction risks,” including player communications and paid in-game content.
Games like EA’s FC series — which typically carry a PEGI 3 age rating — will be among the most impacted, with the virtual card packs included in the franchise’s Ultimate Team mode expected to bump future FC releases to a PEGI 16.
The changes will only apply to new games that are submitted for classification from June, or when new features tied to these classifications are introduced by existing games. The new age rating categories include:
- Games that include “paid random items” like loot boxes and gacha systems will be assigned a default PEGI 16 age rating, or PEGI 18 in “some cases,” such as social casino games.
- Games that allow players to purchase in-game content, including time-limited or quantity-limited offers, will be assigned a PEGI 12 rating. For games that offer NFTs or blockchain-related mechanisms, the rating will be bumped up to PEGI 18. In an interview with EuroGamer, PEGI director general Dirk Bosmans said games that allow users to disable in-game purchases by default will be able to reduce their PEGI rating to 7.
- Addictive game designs that reward players for returning frequently (such as daily quests, battle passes, and login streaks) will get a PEGI 7 rating. This increases to PEGI 12 for games that also punish players for not returning, such as by losing content or reducing progress.
- Games that contain “entirely unrestricted communication features” — those that leave players unable to block, report, or otherwise restrict text, voice, or video chats — will be PEGI 18.
The PEGI changes come as global lawmakers attempt to crack down on allegedly addictive gaming mechanisms, with a recent lawsuit accusing gaming corporation Valve of using loot boxes to promote “illegal gambling.”Adding new categories could also help PEGI to avoid mis-categorizing games, however, such as when it assigned (and then rescinded) an 18 age rating to Balatro for “prominent gambling imagery,” despite there being no actual gambling features within the game.
“PEGI has laid a solid foundation to continue educating parents for many more years, since parents will need a stable source of information about a constantly changing environment like the video games market,” PEGI experts group chair Jeroen Jansz said in a statement. “PEGI will continue to monitor relevant developments, and we will keep assessing the implementation of these criteria in the course of the next year, in the same way that we maintain a continuous review of the content classification categories.”
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