Nintendo Adds Parental Controls

Revolution system will sync with built-in game ratings.

Martyn Williams, IDG News Service

Nintendo will build a parental control system into its upcoming next-generation game console, company representatives say.

The system will work with the age-rating already assigned to video games in many markets and allow parents to set the new console, code-named Revolution, to only play games with certain ratings. To work the rating data will need to be recorded into data on the game disc.

In the U.S., six ratings levels are defined by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB). They are EC (early childhood); E (everyone); E10+ (everyone 10 years of age and older); T (teen); M (mature) and A (adult).

Consoles Queue Up

Nintendo's Revolution is due for launch sometime in 2006. An early model of the console was first revealed in May. It's based on an IBM PowerPC processor and a graphics chip from ATI Technologies. The console mock-ups shown to date are the size of about three CD cases stacked together.

The controllers for the console were first shown at this year's Tokyo Game Show. They are wireless models that break away from the basic design used by many game-makers until now and look a little like a television remote control.

The Revolution will be the second or third of three upcoming new consoles to hit the market. The first will be Microsoft's Xbox 360, which will go on sale in the U.S., Europe and Japan over the next month. Sony Computer Entertainment's PlayStation 3 is due sometime in the first half of 2006.