Last month I went to a preview of Sega and The Creative Assembly's new free roaming hack-and-slash, Viking: Battle of Asgard. The game stands out as one of the most graphically violent titles we've actually seen on UK shelves and bloodily dissecting your foes limb by evil limb is the par for the course.

At the time, I interviewed Senior Game Designer Col Rodgers and took the chance to quiz him about his thoughts on the then-rumoured introduction of a mandatory ratings system. "I'm a parent myself and ultimately I wouldn't like to think that there were unrated games going out and my children could be exposed to [violent games]," he said.

I asked he thought that whether it mandatory ratings system could actually be good for gamers. "Yes I really do", Rodgers replied. "You've just got to be responsible when you approach this. Sega and Creative Assembly are responsible - what they do is understood to be 'what they do', and it is controlled as such with all the correct ratings in place."

Quite a candid response, especially from a developer whose game wears its adult levels of gore firmly on its sleeve. But most importantly, it's reassurance for anyone who fears that games may be toned down in response to Byron's proposed changes to the rating system.

If the government does decide to implement Byron's recommendations - and at the moment they are just that - then far from sparking the demise of creative freedom in gaming, it could actually be of significant benefit to the whole games industry.

Rather than labouring under a public misconception that video games are this errant, uncontrolled destructive force out to corrupt your children, the fact that there are appropriate measures in place will help to tame the more sensationalist opponents.

Viking: Battle for Asgard is out today on PS3 and Xbox 360.

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