The ESRB was instituted in 1994 to regulate the increasing violence in video games at the demand on the United States government on the condition that if the gaming industry didn't regulate itself, the government would. The gaming industry willingly complied and that was that. There have been many controversies since with retroactive ratings, re-branding a game based on user-generated content, and the outright blocking of software from being sold at retail, but for the most part the ratings system has proven itself to work well in preventing violent games from falling into the hands of consumers who are just too young for such a game. There is just one glaring flaw in the deal…many parents are just plain stupid.
