This topic has 2 purposes.

1) Raise awareness about the growing lack of single-player premium/"AAA" games that aren't ESRB Mature rated.

2) Help people find single-player premium games with lower than an ESRB Mature rating.

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So over the last 5 years, I've noticed that single-player/offline games have split into 2 categories:
1)ESRB Everyone/Everyone 10+
2)ESRB Mature
- with little or nothing in between.

Almost all of the ESRB Teen games made these days are MMORPGs.

So here's the million-dollar question. What happens to people who want a serious (non-cartoonish, with a lot of thinking and tactical depth) single-player game, minus the mature content?

Just a note: I didn't make this topic as a complaint. I'm well over 20 years old - ESRB (and similar) age limits aren't a problem for me in practice.

Because gamers grew up in the eyes are developers.

Like Naughty Dog ended up changed their direction and made the Last of Us.

Well, you can still get decent AAA titles that are family friendly from Nintendo.

IMNSHO many "M" games are actually rather childish, just with ugliness added. It had better be a really good game with a deep story before I will even consider putting up with that. Developers don't have to be gory, nasty, or foul-mouthed to be intelligent.

I may have grown up but I still love Crash Bandicoot :D

"AAA" games have more to do with the marketing budget than anything else. They also have a tendency to be first person shooters, or Resident Evil 4 style third person shooters.

This year I've spent countless hours playing Crusader Kings 2. I'd say that's an AAA game. That has an ESRB rating of T and is predominantly single player, though it does have multiplayer capability.

What counts as mature content?

Witcher 2 in a nutshell.

Define 'premium' and 'AAA'.

Does The Talos Principle count?

So, everything that makes 'Muricans scared.

-laughs- If only it was that simple. Would call that a combination of what a lot of people think they want, want to have vicariously while being completely safe, and what they want but are told they shouldn't want, except for when they're being told to want it as a way to sell them things.
Gotta love fake culture.

America:

Blood: T
Guts: M
Tits: AO
Fuck: no can't do.

Germany:

Tits: 16+
Blood/Fuck: 18+
Guts: no can't do.

(though TBH in Germany it has become better since games are more acknowledged as an art form).

Tits is just M though. See Metro Last Light for example. :P

Yeah well it's supposed to be a little exaggerated, The Saboteur is M too... On the other hand, in Germany Black Mirror earned a 12+ rating and I was like: *wtf* - did they actually play this game?

I think ratings have become a lot stricter over the years. Heroes of Might and Magic III was rated E, but if a game like that came out now it would probably be rated T or possibly even M considering the cut scene with the severed Ogre head.
I also noticed some game ratings have changed over the years, Oblivion for instance was originally rated T but is now rated M.