Julian Eggebrecht, the president of Factor 5, has claimed this week that the approach taken by ratings boards such as the to sex and satire in games proves that such censors don't take the medium seriously. He believes that games can't include such content because the ESRB doesn't take videogaming seriously as an art form.

"I would be happy if in games we could talk about homosexuality, but we're not even at the point where we can admit that humans have heterosexual relationships, and that is a real problem - and it tends to show that games are not being seen, even by our own ratings boards, as an artform," he told GCDC attendees in Leipzig, Germany.

The Lair developer noted various examples of times when the ESRB blocked content from his game, such as when the developer wanted to include a coffee maker in the game, dubbed 'Hot Coffee', as a satirical reference to the San Andreas Hot Coffee scandal. However, the ratings board apparently blocked the move, stating that it mocked the authorities investigating that scandal.

"I want to see a game with real sexual content in a store here in - I don't think it will happen unless we really recognise games as an artform," he added, noting films like Eyes Wide Shut and the real-life that film addressed, which aren't spotted in games, presently.

Eggebrecht's speech attacking the ESRB's stance continued, as he defended Rockstar, violent content, and lambasted the submissions process ("a charade"), he also urged developers to continue to push the censoring body - in order to establish new boundaries - according to Eurogamer.net's quotes from the speech.

More soon.

By Luke Guttridge