PEGI Board Meeting
16 August 2012
Meeting Minutes
PEGI Management Board
16 August 2012 10:00 – 13:00
Köln Messe, KÖLN
th
Present: Jo Twist (JT), Maximilian Schenk (MS), Jean Claude Larue (JCL), Dominika Urbanska
(DU), Antonio Xavier (AX), Jeffrey Goldstein (JG), Tiffany Steckler (TS), Greg Ward (GW),
Christèle Jalady (CJ).
Apologies: Maria Tjarnlund (MJ), Matthew Hill (MH), Thalita Malago (TM), Henk Hoogendoorn
(HH), Alberto Gonzalez Lorca (AG).
In Attendance: Simon Little (SL), Jürgen Bänsch (JB), David Sweeney (DS), Dirk Bosmans (DB),
Jennifer Wacrenier (JW).
1)
Opening of PEGI Management Board Meeting
SL opened the meeting.
2) Approval of last PEGI MB Meeting Minutes
The board approved the minutes of the last meeting held in Brussels on the 10th May 2012.
3) General Update
PEGI in the UK
JT explained the launch of the large PEGI campaign in the UK (“Control, Create and Collaborate”).
It will lead up to Christmas with the support of the website www.askaboutgames.co.uk. UKIE got
interesting survey results with 1,000 parents, from which 92% recognize the positive aspects of
games. The ‘create’ and ‘collaborate’ aspects of the campaign aim to encourage family and parents
to play together. The campaign received 280 pieces of coverage in media. DB added that the
community comments were also very positive. The technical legal enforcement is only for 12 and
up but the communication was about all PEGI ratings.
Enhanced Consumer Advice
SL explained that the VSC plans to offer Additional Consumer Information (in English only) in
addition to the existing auto-generated consumer advice provided on the PEGI website. The
information will focus strictly on the content of the game (no reviews, critiques or spoilers). It will
be valuable for parents to know more about the content prior to purchase. For the moment, it will
go on the GRA website but it may be used in the PEGI website and app at a later date.
It was acknowledged that for some publishers / products the ‘early’ release of information may be
problematic. Publisher members agreed to discuss internally to assess the sensitivity of the issue.
As a compromise it was agreed that SL would investigate the feasibility of adding a new field to the
coder submission section which defaults to a 2 week lead time for publication of the advice but this
default could be adjusted by the coder if necessary.
PEGI Formats
SL raised the question about backward compatibility between packaged discs from a new
generation console and the previous generation and if this rule should also apply to back catalogue
of previously rated downloadable games. If we accept to keep the same license for both products, it
will have budget implications regarding the additional submissions. SL suggested that if it is
marketed towards a new platform, it should be a new rating. GW said that the problem will be for
cross platforming (i.e. games that you can play on your mobile and PC for which you bought only
one license). DU confirmed that Sony does the same with the PS Vita and the PS3. It was
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suggested for consistency that if the game is available on two formats then there should be two
licenses even if the consumer buys it once. DS suggested that as the defining factor in the PEGI Fee
Schedule Annex was whether or not a game could be considered as a product ‘in its own right’ this
would support separate rating for each platform edition. It was agreed that SL should come with a
detailed impact assessment of the various options.
E-Learning
JW explained the E-learning project progress. PEGI Basic Training has been launched and is a very
helpful tool for new coders. After the first test with PEGI Basic, some limitations in terms of
platform access, design and sharing of the actual development have been noticed. As a result it has
been decided to move towards a new platform (E-doceo) rather than rely on the VSC system used to
date. This new software will allow PEGI to develop high quality training modules with animation
and video tutorials, easy localization and an online development function to allow development
across multiple locations (PEGI, VSC and NICAM). The objective is to create in the upcoming
months, the PEGI Advanced Admin Training (Pro) and the marketing module. With this new
software and platform it will be possible to widen the scope further; for example to offer a retail
module. NTA’s board members supported the idea of collaboration in order to offer this tool
locally.
4) PEGI Congress 2012
SL presented the Congress global agenda and meetings planned. AX asked to start the Council
meeting at 14h00 instead of 13h00. This was agreed. 230 invitations have been sent and
registrations have started.
SL said that the audience will be more mixed than last time with several German officials and the
risk that some participants are not so familiar with PEGI. The focus will be on PEGI issues and
there will be less ‘academic discussion’. There will be the Congress plenary with three keynotes
(Germany, Parliament and Commission) starting the day and the video from Neelie Kroes closing
the day. JB said that Roberta Angellili from the EP can’t be there but also offered a videogram, this
would work well to break up the other two keynotes. JB hope to have the German director from DG
Connect from the Commission. MS said that he will have some proposals for the German keynote.
AX suggested presenting PEGI system and organization at the start of the Congress SL agreed and
proposed to do a PEGI introduction. The board agreed with JB’s suggestion to have some
interactions and feedback with the various PEGI boards during the day as the event could serve as a
showcase of how the PEGI management structure and Board work . TS suggested that we could
have also have some time to “ask the audience”. We could offer a smartphone friendly website with
voting and feedback options. DB indicated that all topics are set up to be forward-looking, thereby
avoiding that we hark back to past questions. JB said that the “PEGI on the internet” topic is
targeted at potential cooperation with FSM, the hope is thatwe can announce in Berlin that PEGI
will be compliant with FSM and be able to generate the codes readable by youth programs in order
to allow full parental controls on the internet.
Following discussion the revised agenda was agreed as follows:
28/11/2012
14:00 – 18:00
15:00 – 16:30
17:00 – 18:00
PEGI Meetings:
PEGI Council Meeting
Experts Group Meeting
Complaints Board Meeting
29/11/2012
09:00
Congress Program:
START
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17:00
3 keynotes of about 10 mins each (Germany, Parliament and Commission)
PEGI Introduction [suggested by AX]
PEGI and Germany
PEGI in the World
PEGI on the Internet (Digital age)
PEGI on Mobiles
N. Kroes video
CLOSE
30/11/2012
09:00 – 10:00
10:00 – 12:00
12:00 – 13:00
Board meetings:
ISFE Board
Joint board
PEGI Board
5)
PEGI for APPS
SL explained that the Apps discussion was intertwined with the ongoing EC CEO Coalition work.
It appears that European mobile operators are not keen on a PEGI solution because: a) they want to
do the minimum required, b) they have national networks and have always argued for national
cultural differences, c) they want a zero increase in costs. GW explained that the problem for
Microsoft is that PEGI is European only but they can make their own global system. SL said that
PEGI for APPS was on the path to IARC which had the ambition to be worldwide. SL asked the
board members for their thoughts in the circulated discussion paper. JB pointed out that by
proposing this paper, we would anticipate the forthcoming EU Data Protection Regulation. It is not
an urgent measure for the 13 age regulation but we need to have a position as Europe will be
harmonized towards this.
Following a full discussion by the board it was agreed to revise the PEGI for APPS text proposal to
include the following points.
•
•
•
•
•
•
The concept of Content Descriptors and Feature Descriptors should be developed.
The general scope of the new Feature Descriptors was agreed.
Apps that had no ratable content but had features of concern would have Feature
Descriptors only.
Apps that had no ratable content nor any features of concern would use the PEGI OK label.
Game Apps that had ratable content would be rated as currently but would also show Feature
Descriptors as necessary.
The concept of PEGI 13 for digital products should be considered again in the context of the
new EU data protection regulations.
6)
IARC
SL explained that an IARC meeting was held at E3, hosted by ESRB. The meeting was well
attended by many ratings boards. But there are three main issues:
1) There is no workable business model yet
2) What is the value of a system that no one is willing to pay for?
3) ESRB expects to expand it to all digital products and not only apps.
If all games go through IARC (and as anticipated, for no fee) then PEGI would receive no direct
income. The business model of the project will be discussed at the ISFE Board and PEGI will
propose an alternative model to the ESRB for an appropriate collaboration.
7) CEO Coalition
JB explained the progress of the “Coalition to make the Internet a better place for kids” since the
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last meeting. As reported in the Apps discussion, most European mobile network operators prefer to
follow the Apple / Google lead and create very simple in house classification systems.
To try to counter this move SL had meet with Vodafone on 14/8 to explore the resistance to PEGI.
The meeting has suggested an alternative business model for PEGI when dealing with mobile
operators. As they all perform a QA check on products during the submission process (which
includes a check for content issues) the value of PEGI offering a content check is limited. Of
greater value is buy-in to the PEGI overall system. If they signed up to PEGI (by way of an
operators license), operators would not need to develop and manage criteria or deal with oversight
issues. PEGI could maintain a small audit function (mainly to deal with consumer queries /
complaints) but it’s main purpose would be in the management and upkeep of the system (the
functions currently carried out by PEGI SA.) SL said he would explore this further.
Little progress has been made on UGC so Robert . Madelin (DG of DG Connect) has decided tol
chair the next meeting of the group himself whereat PEGI will do a third presentation about PEGI
for APPS (14/9).
8) FSM Cooperation
Until recently, before a Germany consumer could access local ‘mature content’ on the internet
he/she had to ‘register’ at the post office. This year the government approved 2 filtering programs
(JusProg and one from Deutsche Telekom) that require installation on a PC. The programs read
meta-data embedded in the website which gives content rating information. The meta-data format
was developed by a German organization called FSM. With one of these programs installed it is
possible to access previously restricted content. We are exploring the opportunity to have the PEGI
system automatically generate the required meta-data for inclusion on websites featuring PEGI
rated games. This would allow sites featuring games rated 16 and 18 to be accessed from Germany
and promotes the system as ‘European’ rather than just ‘German’. As FSM is an association
certified by the government, it would show our political support for the German system. If the
project is feasible we’d like to announce PEGI’s support of the system at the Congress. The
costing for the code generating software would be less than €10k.
The board agreed with the conclusion that the project was politically interesting and worth
pursuing.
9) Open Data Project
SL explained that there is an ‘Open Data’ movement on the Internet that pushes to make data of
public interest open to all. It is being run by Phil Archer of the ICRA organisation. PEGI is
exploring the cost / benefit of pursuing such a project - alone or in partnership with other rating
bodies. PEGI will offer ‘in principle’ support for the idea and keep a watching brief on progress.
10) Russia
SL said that Russia will have a new law coming into effect on 1 September 2012 but there are no
implementation details yet. The local industry is working on a self-regulatory solution that it aims
to present to the government. It seems that it is not possible to directly translate from PEGI ratings.
DU asked if we could still try to put PEGI in Russia but the feeling was that the government is not
interested in the PEGI system. DU said she felt this was a financial issue and that we could offer the
PEGI system as a gift, which they would administer as they want to keep an internal system and we
would only have a small level of royalties. SL asked if GW could investigate this idea with his
Russian contacts.
11) Next Meetings
1. Berlin - PEGI Congress - 30th November (morning)
2. Madrid - 7th March 2013 (afternoon)
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3. Cannes – during IDEF (probably 25 or 26 June 2013)
12) Meeting close
The meeting was closed at 13:00.
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