Ok now - firstly, this thread is part informative, part self-interest & part complaining...

As part of a WiiWare release, a developer is required to get the game rated in the countries it is being released in (I don't think there is anything secretive about this fact...).

For a Euro release, there are actually 3 ratings needed for a full release:

 - PEGI: European game rating

 - USK: German game rating

 - AECB/OFLC: Australian/New Zealand classification rating

...

Being an Australian developer, it was really important for us to get our game (Flowerworks) out in Australia. You want it out in your home country, no?

It was then pretty disappointing to find that Australia not only seemed to have the most antiquated classification system - it was (as a result) the most expensive by far.

According to (current) fees, getting a small budget, downloadable title rated for PEGI or USK will cost around 250 Euro each. This translates to around $400AU.

The equivalent cost in Australia comes to around $1200 AU.

This really shocked me... for a small, cheap game, which makes the developer say $4 per unit - they need to sell 300 units just in Australia, just to cover the rating cost. Ouch.

...

Now - there is a catch. If a game is assessed by an 'Authorised Assessor' before hand - the cost of the classification drops to around $450. Ok - that sounds much more reasonable, and is in line with other countries.

So... how do I find an Authorised Assessor? Well - you don't.

After some serious searching, I basically gave up. The occasional person I spoke to who was a Games Authorised Assessor - simply refused to look at our (zero risk) game. It was too risky. Legally. They couldn't touch it. Ummm... ok.

Now - the other option is you can go and book yourself in to become an Assessor yourself. Ok - sweet! How much does that cost?

Well - it costs just enough, such that the cost of the course plus the cheaper classification cost ... = the expensive classification cost. And once you become an Assessor - it expires every 12 months, so you need to take a refresher course.

Arrrgh!!

...

In the end, this frustrated me enough that we (Nocturnal) are actually doing something about it. We sent off one of our employees to do the assessment course, and now have an in-house 'Game Authorised Assessor'. And I have decided to start a service (http://gameassessment.com.au), which makes this assessment service open to *all companies* (i.e. we'll rate any game) at a very reasonable cost... such that the overall cost of game classification in Australia will now be around half of what it used to be.

Of course this doesn't apply to big companies (i.e. EA, Nintendo) who would definitely have assessors in-house - but hopefully this will assist smaller devs, and make releasing games in Australia just that bit more affordable.

Anyway - rant over. I can't believe we had to actually do this, and my hope is that our short-term pain saves some long-term pain for other companies...

I always find it interesting to understand how things work behind the scenes.....there's so much stuff that we take for granted on a daily basis. Stupid that you had to go to such lengths though.

This is really scratching the surface - as you say, gamers have no real idea just how much craziness goes into production of a commercially released title.

If nothing else, I have a new found respect for publishers - as there is no much work involved that has *nothing* to do with game development. Pity there isn't a single publisher that handles all this, for all devs (at cost level).