Bethesda sent out emails to various game sites that are running the trailers for Fallout 3 and requested that the ads be taken down immediately. Reason? It sounds as though the ESRB may have had something to do with it.
The email, sent by Bethesda VP Pete Hines said:
"In connection with ESRB’s advertising guidelines, you are instructed to remove immediately any of our Fallout 3 trailers from your website, pending further notice. Thank you for your attention to this matter."
A quick look at the ESRB rules and regulations concerning game ads states that they should not "contain any content that is likely to cause serious or widespread offense… graphic and/or excessive depictions of violence."
The Fallout 3 trailer shown at E3 depicted an enemy head exploding in slow-mo and this may have turned some heads, so to speak. But it isn’t clear whether the ESRB contacted Bethesda about the ads or the game developer did it of its own accord.
The cynical would point out that with the release of the game on Tuesday, pulling the trailers for the game may be just a ploy to gather more interest and attention for Fallout 3. Bur regardless of the reason, it will probably stir up a certain amount of interest for it now that the trailers have been pulled.
But never fear, YouTube has a good collection of them if you’re interested.
[via Gamasutra]
