I believe this guy is a Microsoft troll.
I'm a fact troll... when I see they are missing I am compelled to add them to the conversation.
I live in the U.S. and can tell you 99% of games are M rated
I live in Dallas, Texas. Checkmate!
You just misread what I said...
"In the US the ESRB has a M+17 rating which is what 99% of all games ***fall below***."
... or more clearly there are almost no AO games in the US marketplace. I make this point because Microsoft allows M rated games in the store... they always have. The issue is only with the PEGI system in Europe.
99% of games are M rated
You are wrong. The vast majority of games are rated less than M. Here are the stats for 2010:
http://kotaku.com/5782792/just-5-percent-of-games-were-rated-m-last-year-says-esrb
Still as far as sales are concerned... I would expect M rated games sell way more... but that is a guess. Personally I don't think I've bought a game not rated M in a while which is probably why you believed they were the majority.
Also it is 16+
You are wrong... M is 17+. See the ESRB site:
http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp
The ESRB is very strict, and their rules are constantly becoming stricter.
I disagree... I would argue they are becoming less strict. They just started to allow mobile/downloadable game developers to "self rate" their games online for free:
http://www.pcgamesn.com/indie/esrb-launch-free-rating-system-downloadable-games
It is great to be a indie developer right now.
- Tom