Current Events > How does ESRB rate a game so far in advance?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Like Starfield's rating has just been confirmed by the ESRB and it's fairly detailed and gives direct examples of dialogue.

So is someone at the ESRB just playing an early build to completion, or do they just get a general vibe. How does it work for dialogue heavy games like Starfield, etc? Do they have hear every line of dialogue or do they take Bethesda's word for it? What if there's a N word or a C word depending on how you finish a quest that you wouldn't hear if you made a different choice?

The ESRB is sent a video reel that they then base a rating on. They don't actually play the game.

Pretty sure the publisher is responsible for furnishing a detailed report with examples to the agency. Images, video clips, etc. Its on them to supply a pertinent report of examples for proper rating.

The publisher sends them clips of some of the content before it's even gone gold.

This isn't always effective sometimes, such as with the Oblivion situation