EA CEO John Riccitiello, also chairman of the US ESRB, stated that worldwide growth of the games audience calls for a global rating system that's applicable to all formats and regulated by the industry itself. The influential executive was in Washington DC, accepting the Media Institute's annual American Horizon Award for "visionary leadership in promoting the vitality and independence of his industry", as reported by Polygon.

"We live in an incredible age. In the past three years the audience for games has grown from roughly 200 million, to over one billion," Riccitiello said.

He added: "Virtually everyone on the planet who owns a phone can play a game. The Supreme Court has given us the same First Amendment rights as authors, musicians and film makers - a set of rights which we cherish. But as we are so often told: With great freedom, comes great responsibility. To live up to that responsibility, we need to do a better job informing the consumer, no matter the channel, the platform or the geography. We must adopt a self-regulated, global rating system across every format games are played on."

The EA big boss also commented how consumers are focused on games on Facebook, Google, Apple, in addition to acquiring games via Steam and Origin. "Most have a rating system," he said, "but none are consistent. Consequently, we are confusing the consumer."

Yeah, what's confusing the consumer is how EA always talks about "innovation," but what they do in reality is sucking the fertile lands of gaming completely dry (think Mass Effect, Dragon Age - both started out brilliantly and then they were subsequently tossed into the vile ponds of mediocrity).