According to a Business Wire story on Yahoo Finance today, the Entertainment Software Rating Board has modified its rating system, further dividing violence into four new categories: Cartoon, Fantasy, Intense and Sexual.

The changes will take effect on September 15, 2003, along with changes to the labels on videogame boxes to make them more prominent, visible, and informative than the old labels. Ratings such as M for Mature will also get a minimum recommended age.

What does this have to do with Halo? Well you might ask. The original release of Halo for the Xbox was given a rating of M , rather than T (Teen) more or less at the last moment. As a result, the game's content was quite a bit milder than it could have been before reaching the next level ( AO , or Adults Only ) and yet still suffered the consequences of not being offered for sale in some stores. It was thought that, once Bungie saw the game could succeed with an M rating, that the sequel might well be a bit gorier, or have language in it slightly more colorful than the word crap , which is probably the most explicit word uttered by any in-game character during gameplay.

However, the addition of a minimum age to the M rating may cloud the issue somewhat. Stores may decide that they have their own age thresholds, and this may need to be taken into account when deciding how mature Halo 2's content should be.