Microsoft makes a U-turn on PEGI-18 games for the Windows Store, will now allow those rated mature

Microsoft has told Kotaku that popular games which are rated PEGI 18 in Europe will in fact be allowed into the Windows Store. The news presents a U-turn from their previous position, which was that such rated games will be banned from Microsoft’s Windows 8 App Store.

In USA ESRB Adult games are often sex-related, and exclude most games, while popular games like Skyrim or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 are rated PEGI 18 in Europe due to violence.  Microsoft will now allow those games that are rated PEGI 18 in as long as they are not rated Adult in USA.

"It basically ends up disqualifying games that would be ESRB Mature," said Windows Corporate VP of Web Services Antoine Leblond.

"This is to give developers a heads up that that’s where we’re going," Leblond said, "So they can have the peace of mind around developing the kinds of games that will have those ratings."

The change will however only come into play in December – until then those 18-rated games will remained banned from the App Store.

Of course most of these games can also be side-loaded onto Windows 8 PCs, a point Leblond wanted to emphasize.

"We want the world of desktop apps to to keep existing [outside of the Windows Store]," he said. "There’s no reason to get in the way of that. Valve can keep being Valve." And you can keep buying Skyrim from it.”

Read more at Kotaku here.