They're private groups that do the ratings but ESRB is enforced by laws in some Canadian provinces for instance and PEGI is enforced by law in some European countries. They do have a de facto authority in those places as a publisher can't just decide to disregard their ratings and sell to minors anyway or something.

[–] LorIps@lemmy.world 11 points 6 days ago (1 children)

In Austria PEGI is "enforced" in Vienna while USK is "enforced" in Salzburg (and Germany, the reason why they buy all their games here). And PEGI might be shit, but USK is a million times worse.

[–] ___qwertz___@feddit.org 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

USK rated Balatro with a minimum age of 12 because of "elements resembling gambling". Sounds more reasonable to me than the PEGI rating.

[–] LorIps@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

German Authorities (technically not USK but USK is affiliated to them completely banned Wolfenstein, Dying Light, etc. Not 18+ or whatever it's straight up illegal to promote or openly sell them in Germany.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I can kind of understand Wolfenstein, as Germany does seem to have this thing where they do and also don't want to face their past.

But Dying light is a generic zombie game.

[–] LorIps@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Yeah, it's always stupid what ends up there and what doesn't. And because of Germany's stupid laws the German version often ends up worse than other versions (often even removing the English language option) (And people are surprised that we hate our northern neighbors...)

Here's a (non-exclusive) list of banned games in Germany (it's in German but the game titles should make it accessible to people that can only speak English): https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kategorie:Indiziertes_Computerspiel

Oh yeah, Half-Life was indexed in Germany until 2017 (coincidentally when they switched from Elke Monssen-Engberding to someone less grumpy (half of the stupid decisions coming from Germany just stem from some grumpy old person who's entrenched in a Department))

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I honestly think it would be easier to just list games that they allow. I suppose Germans are really into Tetris or something since that's apparently the only acceptable game.

[–] LorIps@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

It really has gotten better over the last couple years but for two decades they pretty much banned everything with the slightest hint of being adult. They are I believe also the reason for why Contra is Probotector in Europe