‘Hatred’ Serial Killer Game Brings Ultra Rare ‘Adults Only’ Rating to the Masses

Late last week, the mass shooter simulator Hatred quietly got an official product page on the popular digital games distribution platform Steam, meaning the service's 100 millio​n users will be able to buy and download it on PC like any other game when it's released.

No matter how you feel about Hatred (we're not big fans), its release on Steam is significant because it's the first game in the online store rated "Adults Only" (AO) by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), the organization that rates video games in North America.

Much like the Motion Picture Association of America's (MPAA) NC-17 rating, the ESRB's AO is mostly just a threat. All of the major console manufacturers—Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo—won't allow AO-rated games on their platforms, and huge retailers like Walmart won't sell AO-rated games in their stores the same way most movie theaters won't show NC-17 movies.

Also like the MPAA (as best summarized in 2006's Thi​s Film Is Not Yet Rated), the ESRB is far more appalled by sex than violence.

Out of 26 AO-rated games listed on the ESRB's website, only one, Peak Entertainment Casinos, was rated AO for gambling content. An unreleased Mortal Kombat knockoff named Thrill Kill was rated​ AO for "Animated Blood and Gore" and "Animated Violence." (Here's a laughable video of the 1998 P​layStation game.)

The other 24 games on the list were rated AO for some combination of Strong Sexual Content, Nudity, or Mature Sexual Themes.

Hatred's first trailer showing its Adults Only rating.

The ESRB is less relevant on the PC, an open platform where there isn't one dominant company like a console manufacturer with a brand to protect. You can buy and download games on PC from anyone without an ESRB rating. Even Steam, which has become synonymous with PC gaming in recent years, doesn't require an ESRB rating before it puts games up on its store.

Up until Hatred, however, Steam's policies have largely echoed the ESRB. In 2012, for example, it kicked the AO-rated "erotic strategy game" S​educe Me out of Steam Greenlight, a part of the service where developers can submit their games and have Steam users vote on whether they'd like to play them. The projects with the most votes make it to the Steam store. At the time, Steam operator Val​ve explained Seduce Me's expulsion, saying that "Steam has never been a leading destination for erotic material," and that "Greenlight doesn't aim to change that."

Hatred also went through Greenlight, but was treated quite differently. The game was pulled down without explanation shortly after it was posted to Steam Greenlight, then reinstated after an intervention and personal apology from Gabe Newell, Valve's co-founder, managing director, and something akin to a min​or deity among PC gamers. Hatred then promptly raked in the votes, which is how it became the first AO game in the Steam store.

At this point someone is going to say "oh yeah, what about Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, that's an Adults Only game," but no, not the version that's up on Steam. The game was released at the common rating of Mature 17+ (M+), and was forced up to an AO when modders discovered a way to reintroduce its sex mini-game, which Rockstar cut out. This is that famous Hot Coffee mod incident. All versions of the game that followed, including the one you can currently buy from Steam, cut it out completely, so the rating was reverted back to M+.

Same for the recently remastered version of Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy. It received an AO rating for sexual content at the time, but the remastered version of the game is sold digitally, and so did not have to go through the ESRB.

Also, in both of these cases the AO rating was due to sexual content, not violence.

It's important to note that developer Destructive Creations didn't even need to submit Hatred to the ESRB to get on the Steam Store. It's not a requirement.

For boxed retail releases, game developers and publishers have to go through the ESRB's "Long Form" process, which requires filling out a questionnaire detailing the game's pertinent content, as well as a DVD supercut of the worst the game has to offer. Once the ESRB views the materials and decides on a rating, the publisher produces packaging that shows it clearly, and then it's ready for Walmart, GameStop, Target, etc.

For digitally-delivered games like Hatred, the ESRB has a much easier "Short Form" process. All Destructive Creations had to do is fill out a questionnaire, which automatically generates a rating it can use, and sometimes the ESRB will check if this rating is correct after the fact.

However, Destructive Creations opted for the longer process. "What we've sent was the walkthrough of the first level of the game plus the description what you can see and do in the rest of levels [sic]," CEO Jarosław Zieliński said in an email. "We did this to show the context of the whole game. The first level represents nicely all the features ESRB is usually interested in because, you can see all the gruesome stuff right at the beginning of our game."

"Well, I'm not quite convinced why Hatred got AO rating while it lacks any sexual content, but it's still some kind of achievement to have the second game in history getting AO rating for violence and harsh language only," a Destructive Creations developer with the screenname DC_SatanicBlood said the game's o​fficial forums. "The guy from ESRB (by the way - very nice, polite and cooperative one) told me it's all about 'the context' which people they're testing gameplay video on will see."

The developer added that he'd prefer to get the standard M+ rating because it will allow Hatred on consoles, but that he also thinks fans would be disappointed if Hatred didn't "achieve" the AO rating.

Obviously, one reason Destructive Creations would want an AO rating is publicity. Here I am writing about it, right? It might also explain why Newell intervened to reinstate Hatred to Greenlight and why Valve is going ahead and putting it up on the Steam store despite the AO rating. Better to let it be lost in the hundreds of games that flood the store every year than fight Destructive Creations, let them cry censorship, and become martyrs. (I reached out to Valve for comment but they didn't respond. Valve usually doesn't respond to press queries!).

Whatever the reasoning, and assuming things will proceed as planned, Valve is incidentally helping make Hatred the most marketable AO game in history. Technically, there is an Amazon seller who's offering Sed​uce Me, and GOG.com (formerly Good Old Games) is offering Leisure Suit Larry: Magn​a Cum Laude Uncut and Uncensored, but neither service has Steam's mainstream appeal among PC gamers.

Hatred is set to release in the second quarter of 2015. Make sure you read Motherboard's interview with its creator Jarosław Zieliński.