Mortal Kombat Helped Create Game Ratings
In the early 1990s, Mortal Kombat made video-game violence hard to ignore. Its finishing moves, called Fatalities, let players end a fight with graphic, cartoonishly bloody attacks. Parents and politicians argued that games like it could expose children to material they were not ready for.
The dispute reached Congress in 1993, when senators held hearings on violent video games. Mortal Kombat was a prominent example, but it was not the only game under scrutiny. The hearings raised the prospect of government regulation—and put pressure on the game industry to show it could set its own standards.
From Political Pressure to Ratings
In response, the industry established the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) in 1994. Rather than banning particular games, the board created a system to give consumers guidance about age suitability and content. A game could receive an age-based rating, such as “Mature,” along with descriptors indicating why—violence, language, or other material.
That system changed the decision facing families. Instead of judging a game’s contents from its title or box art alone, shoppers could consult a label before buying it. Retailers could also use ratings in deciding what to sell to younger customers.
Mortal Kombat did not single-handedly invent the idea of rating games; it became a vivid symbol of the controversy that pushed the industry toward a formal system. The lasting consequence was a new checkpoint between a game’s creators and its audience: before a player ever saw a Fatality, a rating could tell a parent what kind of content to expect.
