ESRB Demands Hidden Content Review

Gamasutra is reporting that the ESRB is now mandating an audit of hidden game content. The audit is retroactive to the 1st of this month. From the article: "Fully disclosing hidden content accessible as Easter eggs and via cheat codes has always been part of ESRB's explicitly stated requirements when submitting games to be rated. In the July 20 public announcement, which focused on the revocation of a specific game's rating assignment, we formally stated that any pertinent content shipped on the game disc that may be relevant to a rating must be disclosed to ESRB, even if it is not intended to ever be accessed during game play."

Comments

Re:How are they going to enforce this?

[NotWorkSafe]

It really doesn't mean a thing to anyone who knows what's going on (ie, the /. crowd) but it is meant to make Joe Schmoe and his soccer mom wife happy.

Now they believe that 8 year old Little Johnny is safe from pornography in the M rated games they buy him.

Re:Games w/o ratings

[commander_gallium]

[i] Can games be released as "Unrated" in a similar way to movies? If so, I say down with ratings! :)[/i] Sure, but Walmart won't carry them.