Expert: Andrew Crome - 6/10/2008

Question
On my xbox 360 live account it wont let me download m rated demo games at the marketplace. I can download t and e but it wont let me download m. When I setup the account I put my age which is 13, so i dont know what to do so I can download m rated games. What could I do?

Answer
Hi Tyler,

"M" rated games are rated by the Entertainment Software Rating Board as suitable only for those aged 17 years and older. The ESRB defines these as "Titles in this category may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language.". While the rating system may seem frustrating, it is there for a good reason. I would be very uncomfortable recommending GTA IV or Manhunt, for example, to anybody under 18.

Having said that, there are "M" rated games which I feel are a little harshly rated (Call of Duty 4 comes to mind here). The ratings are there as a guideline, and the final decision on if or if not the games are suitable for you to play has to come down to your parents. If you feel that there are "M" games with suitable content for you to play, then the only advice I can give you is talk it over with them and see if they agree. Let them read reviews online and see if they find anything objectionable. If they think that the game is OK, see if they will download it for you on their Xbox account. If not, then there's nothing that can be done.

To reiterate - the majority of those games rated "M" are NOT suitable for you to be play at the moment. Any exceptions to this MUST be OK'ed by your parents. I'm sure this isn't the answer that you'd ideally want, but it's the only responsible one that I can give!

All the best

Andy