Jakarta. The Indonesian government said Tuesday that it had launched an investigation to look into the recent age rating snafu that hit the popular game distribution platform Steam.

A few days ago, games marketed on Steam displayed inaccurate age labels, which the platform attributed to the government-run Indonesia Game Rating System (IGRS). As the confusion infuriates Indonesian gamers, the Communications Ministry revealed to have entered talks with Steam to pinpoint the root cause.

“We have agreed to conduct an investigation, both within our ministry as well as an external one in Steam. The IGRS is a multi-tier verification mechanism through self-assessments and self-declarations by the developers or publishers,” Sonny Hendra Sudaryana, a director at the Communications Ministry, told a presser.

“So all those mistakes could have been avoided.”

Sonny went on to say that the government would team up with gaming communities, associations, and industry representatives to find out what had actually happened.

He did not give a timeline for the completion of the investigation.

“But we do agree with the netizens. This incident is indeed very odd and even extreme,” Sonny said.

Steam has taken down the IGRS ratings for now, displaying Europe’s PEGI classification system in some titles. During the weekend’s IGRS fiasco, “Upin & Ipin Universe” — the family-friendly adventure game based on the popular Malaysian kids’ animation of the same name — got the 18+ tag. Despite the adorable anime-style cover, the visual novel “Nukitashi” is heavy on sexual content, but was mislabeled as playable for kids as young as 3. 

Steam is developed by the American game giant Valve Corporation. The platform allows gamers worldwide to easily shop for both popular and indie PC titles. Steam has warned its Indonesian users that its platform would no longer display games that miss valid age rating. However, customers who already own a license prior to the restrictions should still be able to play what they have bought.

There are two ways developers can have the age label: the IGRS or a Valve-issued rating via Steam’s self-assessment. The IGRS’ manual book shows that the system requires developers to give a preview of the most “extreme” content in the game. By “extreme”, developers are expected to show the parts that contain violence, alcoholic beverages, narcotics, among others.

In its initial statement, Jakarta denied responsibility for the confusion and pinned the blame on Steam’s internal “self-declare” system. The government claimed that the ratings shown had not undergone official verification by the IGRS.

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