A month ago, Russian gaming companies began adding new labels to their games as part of an experiment — warning of the presence of violence, smoking scenes, in-game purchases, and various other content. Several hundred developers implemented this on the VK Play platform alone.
This figure was revealed at the “RED EXPO” conference by Alexander Mikheev — head of VK Play and CEO of the Association of Industry Professionals in Gaming Operations and Development (APRIORI).
“We didn’t push any developers, didn’t send out any special mailings, and didn’t create motivated traffic. We wanted to see how effectively the developers would handle it themselves,” Mikheev said.
Mikheev added that VK Play users responded calmly to the addition of labels, with not a single complaint filed.
Going forward, the experiment organizers plan to inform developers more actively about their labeling initiative. Specifically, they will send out notifications and compile FAQ materials. Participation in the experiment will remain voluntary.
To recap, the experiment organizers include APRIORI, Lesta Games, Astrum Entertainment, and 1C Games. Besides VK Play, labels are being displayed in RuStore, on game websites, and on physical copies of games. The experiment is expected to last six months.