As the Japanese computer gaming industry is proudly displaying the best it has to offer at its annual exhibition in Tokyo, Sega Enterprises has decided to officially remove the worst it has to offer from its games. The leading games maker announced plans to remove all sex and violence from its computer games.

From October the company will discontinue its adult-category games and impose stricter restrictions on games on games aimed at those above and under 18 years of age. The new rules stipulate that photographs and animated images of naked women will not appear in any games. Women in swimsuits or underwear will be permitted, but only in games labelled for those over 18 years of age.

The change has been brought on, not by pressure or complaints, but by technology. With the new generation of 32-bit and 64-bit games machines, stunningly realistic animation is possible making the images on the screen all the more realistic.

This, coupled with the much wider customer base that the better systems are attracting, has lead to the change in rules.

The change has not been restricted to Sega either. Sony Corporation's Sony Computer Entertainment and Nintendo Co. have already banned naked women from games for their new systems. Some games also carry warning labels advising of graphically violent scenes.

The Computer Entertainment Software Association, an industry association, recently polled its members and has decided to draw up a code of ethics regarding sexually explicit and violent content in video games. Such a code would have to be followed by members of the association. These include leading software producers such as Namco, Konami and Square.

Estimates put the number of software developers that make solely adult games at around 200 in Japan.

 

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