Next-Gen.biz is reporting that a recent memo forwarded to them by a publisher reveals a “new policy that will crack down on early reveals of unreleased games on the [ESRB's] website.”

Essentially, the new policy will allow publishers to set a specific date for the uploading of a game's rating to the ESRB's website, in order to prevent keen-eyed fans from spotting currently unannounced titles.

The memo goes on to note, however, that the system will be of no use “if publishers arbitrarily select dates bearing no reasonable relationship to consumer interest in the product.”

To nullify this problem, the ESRB suggests that either the date of a PR announcement, physical shipping date, and/or online distribution date for a product (whichever comes first), would be a suitable time to upload the rating.