Last week, in a response to rumblings that the British government would institute a new ratings board based on the recommendations of they Byron Review, EA and Microsoft quickly jumped out to express their opposition to changes in the status quo. EA claimed that another ratings board would cause game releases to be delayed, while Microsoft raised the specter of driving up costs for consumers.

Today, BBFC Director David Cook responded to the companies’ concerns, claiming he was "disappointed" in their attempt to "pre-empt, through recent press statements, the forthcoming public consultation on video game classification."

In order to dispel rumors that the new ratings process would drag on forever, Cook pointed out that the current turnaround time for ratings in the UK is eight days, and he doesn’t think there is any reason to believe that letting BBFC in on the process should cause any delays whatsoever.

In response to Microsoft’s claim that the price of games would rise under a new system, Cook replied:

"BBFC classifications are already cheaper for many games than those under the Pan European Games Information (PEGI) System. Because the BBFC currently deals mainly with the most problematic games, BBFC costs will fall if, as Dr. Byron recommended, we take on all games, physical and online, rated ’12’ and above."

"The games industry really does have nothing to fear from a set of proposals," he continued, "which would provide more robust, and fully independent, decisions... The Byron proposals, far from envisaging the collapse of PEGI, specifically provide a continuing PEGI presence in UK games classification... And they would make wider use of a system, the BBFC’s, which British parents recognize, trust and have confidence in."

So now that we’ve heard from both sides, what do you think? Obviously Microsoft and EA want things to stay the same as always, while the BBFC is eager to get into a wider swath of game ratings. I personally ascribe to the "why fix what isn’t broken?" school of thought, and see two different boards as a recipe for trouble. Anybody out there want to try and change my mind? Bring your thoughts to the forums.