Back in the SNES days when both the E rating and the K-A rating existed...

[razorbeamz]

Back in the SNES days when both the E rating and the K-A rating existed simultaneously, what was the difference between the two? Was there a difference?

[Warmsignal]

None, really. There was probably a phase where some games had already been rated under that categorization, and released later rather than sooner, than others with the new rating. I'm not sure why they insisted on the change. I liked the K-A rating better, because it emphasized that adults should enjoy it too. Nowadays, many people dismiss E rated games, assuming they are created solely in the interest of children, like most G rated movies tend to be.

[sin2beta]

There was no difference between K-A and E. E was just a renaming in the ESRB. There was an earlier version by SEGA that used ratings such as GA and MA-13. Basically, there was talk about games being regulated. Both Tom Kalinske (SEGA) and Howard Lincoln (Nintendo) got early word of this. Nintendo felt comfortable with their game content (they already censored a lot) and seemed to push for regulation to cut out the edge competition had. They even sent videos of SEGA games such as Night Trap to the committee. Tom Kalinske pushed for self-regulation. Thus, he spearheaded the formation of a rating system. This was presented and was agreed to be acceptable. However, Nintendo was not fond of adopting this. So, the two groups (and maybe a few others) got together and formed a new system; the ESRB. I think the 1994 era was still working the kinks out which is where K-A was changed to E for Everyone. The CSPAN footage can still be found online.

From my understanding Wolfenstein 3-D was the first game with a self-imposed rating; PC-13, which stood for Profound Carnage. Made for comedic effect or not, people knew what was coming.

[badATchaos]

Kids to Adults was kind of ambiguous so they rebranded it Everyone. There was some overlap because games would get rated then sit around for a while until they get released while others might have been fast-tracked to retail. If I were to guess they couldn't just relabel the games E presumably because the criteria may had changed a little in the transition to E.

[foxhack]

Kids to Adults was kind of ambiguous so they rebranded it Everyone. There was some overlap because games would get rated then sit around for a while until they get released while others might have been fast-tracked to retail. If I were to guess they couldn't just relabel the games E presumably because the criteria may had changed a little in the transition to E.

Some games did get second prints and a changed rating from K-A to E. I've also seen stickers on game boxes with changed ratings, so.