BY BRIAN ALBERTBatman: Arkham Knight has earned an "M for Mature" rating from the ESRB, according to Rocksteady.
The studio's previous Batman games, Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, both earned "T for Teen" ratings. Sefton Hill, founder of Rocksteady and game director on Arkham Knight, said the M rating surprised him because the team didn't specifically aim for it.
"From our point of view, we never wrote it or made it with a rating in mind. We never did that in the previous two games... We just felt that this is the story that we really wanted to tell."
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Hill said Rocksteady is aware that some younger players might miss out on the game because of the rating, but that making the game more "mass market" would have been harmful to the story they want to tell.
"I'm not blind to the fact that [the M rating] does mean some fans will miss out... I don't want to be oblivious to that fact. It would have been wrong to water down the game and deliver a story we didn't believe in to keep the game 'mass market' or enable it for more people. We feel that's the wrong way to go about it. We said we love the story and we don't want to jepoardize that."
For more on Arkham Knight, check out our full interview with Sefton Hill, founder of Rocksteady.