I was talking about bg3 and how a certain part could be changed to be much darker, and it occurred to me that it possibly could affect the rating of the game if they did (being vague purposely to avoid spoilers). But then I wondered “do things like that even have to be reviewed by the rating boards?” Because Larian has made a lot of changes like that to the game and I imagine it would be pretty ludicrous to have each and every one be reviewed to see if it fits within the current ESRB and PEGI ratings of the game.
generally the raters aren’t actually rating the full game anyhow. (they play for upwards of four hours.)
also, during development, the devs are supposed to send the worst bits on for review and rating (including package of other bits and pieces.) and the rely on hefty fines if something is found that exceeds the rating they were given.
the ERSB supposedly flags games with updated content for review.