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ESA touts 43-0 record in game legislation fights

Trade group's annual report recaps a busy year for politicians, publishers; number of ESRB ratings doled out climbs to more than 1,600.

It's no secret that the Entertainment Software Association has been experiencing success in its legislative battles, with high-profile bills in California, Illinois, Oklahoma, and Utah among the failed attempts to regulate the sale of games. However, the gaming industry trade group today released its annual report for the year ended March 31, 2009, showing it has been no less successful in lower-profile skirmishes.

The ESA's home away from home?

The ESA's home away from home?

According to the ESA, it fought 43 bills intended "to regulate content and/or access to video games," with none of them becoming law. The trade group didn't stop with bills looking to keep violent games out of children's hands; among the fruits of its legislative efforts for the year was convincing the mayor of Honolulu, Hawaii, to veto a city council ordinance that prohibited playing games while operating a motor vehicle.

Despite the glut of legal activity, the ESA's dealings with the government weren't exclusively antagonistic. Over its fiscal year, the trade group also saw Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Michigan, and Texas enact new tax incentives for game developers, with 17 more states considering similar measures. The ESA also noted recent changes in Washington, DC, and how they could shape its efforts in the months to come.

"While greater oversight and increased regulation is widely expected under a Democratic Administration and Democrat-controlled Congress, large reforms such as climate change and health care will likely consume both Congress and the Administration well into the first half of the 111th Session (or through the end of 2009)," the ESA said. "That said, it will be more important than ever for the industry to highlight issues like rampant piracy in a stagnant economy and growth in the online marketplace to remain above the fold."

On the piracy note, the ESA said it sent takedown notices to Internet service providers "covering more than 45 million instances of infringement of member company games in more than 100 countries worldwide." It also named names as to the ISPs it found particularly unhelpful in its efforts. An ESA study estimating illegal peer-to-peer downloads of 13 specific titles found that Telecom Italia, Spain's Telefonica, and France Telecom were the top three ISPs whose resources were used to pirate games. Those ISPs also helped Italy, Spain, and France rank first, second, and third in the ESA's study when it came to the top peer-to-peer piracy countries.

The ESA report also contained an update on the Entertainment Software Rating Board. As the game industry grows, it's not surprising that the ESRB's workload has grown as well. For calendar year 2008, the ESA reported 1,677 ratings doled out by the ESRB. That's up 7 percent from 2007's 1,563 ratings, and 30 percent over 2006's ratings tally of 1,281. Of the ratings assigned in 2008, 59 percent received an E for Everyone, with E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older assigned 16 percent of the time. The T for Teen rating accounted for 19 percent of the games released, while just 6 percent of games received the M for Mature designation.

27 Comments

  • nothingto

    Posted Aug 29, 2009 5:50 pm GMT

    Actually i think ESA sucks, there anti piracy fails. I wish they dont do these. F*ck the RIAA, MPAA, ESA, BSA and all the other A's. They just ruin peoples lives by suing helpless people. The only good think about the ESA is that they didnt sue people yet becuase they learned from the RIAA

  • majere613

    Posted Aug 29, 2009 3:11 am GMT

    Yikes! The only thing I can think of regarding the ESA opposing the ban on gaming while driving is that they considered it to unfairly target games- so you could have still sent texts or read a newspaper while driving. In the UK we just have catch-alls like 'driving without due care and attention' or 'not being in control of the vehicle' which they'd have a job to oppose.

  • Glade_Gnarr

    Posted Aug 28, 2009 9:38 pm GMT

    The ESA must have one heck of a lawyer.

  • Glade_Gnarr

    Posted Aug 28, 2009 9:38 pm GMT

    The ESA must have one heck of a lawyer.

  • MarcusAntonius

    Posted Aug 28, 2009 3:56 pm GMT

    @Divine

    No, you read that right. I lived in Honolulu at the time when mass transit accidents were occuring from drivers playing handhelds while operating the buses earlier this year. Pretty irresponsible of the ESA to oppose something so sensible.

  • Divine12

    Posted Aug 28, 2009 9:23 am GMT

    That has to be written wrong. I bet the bill was to ban video games in the car that included its passengers. That i can see being shot down.

  • thundaro

    Posted Aug 28, 2009 6:33 am GMT

    piracy is a seriously overblown issue, think about it for a second MOst of the people who do it do it for 2 reasons 1. they want to try it out and a little demo is just not enough for them to throw down big money on it 2. they were never gonna buy the game no matter what ever! ever!!! they just want to play it but not enough to buy it.

    id say the majority is 2, so it is not "really" taking money from anyone, b/c most of those people were not gonna buy it anyhow, that is how i see it anyway

  • happynoodleboy7

    Posted Aug 27, 2009 8:20 pm GMT

    Legal or not, I'd still rather not see anybody playing a video game while operating a vehicle. It just seems, I dunno, unsafe.

  • Pyro978

    Posted Aug 27, 2009 6:54 pm GMT

    i guess the ESA is like the video game industry's guardian angel

  • ropumar

    Posted Aug 27, 2009 5:47 pm GMT

    I want more adult only games and that big 3 allow them in consoles.
    I want sex,drug incentive,rape, political incorrectness and political satire in games.
    I want kids and crippled in gta5.
    I don't want any barrier in gaming. NONE.

  • Kurzicide

    Posted Aug 27, 2009 5:34 pm GMT

    They brawled with the gov't here in Oklahoma? I didn't ever hear about that. I'm glad it didn't pass though. THANKS ESA!

    Also, I didn't even think people played videogames while driving... if so, they must be good multitaskers. And whoever in front of them must be roadkill.

  • admiral_picard

    Posted Aug 27, 2009 5:34 pm GMT

    Good to see the ESA is fighting the good fight and winning, but seriously guys I don't see any reason why playing games while driving shouldn't be 100% illegal in every state. That would be like defending texting on cell phones while driving - it's been proven to be dangerous and there's no reason a ban on cell phone use while driving should be fought by anyone but the idiots who do it. Like what - someone is playing a PSP while they're driving? I don't know how, or worse yet if they're playing games on a built in TV in the car or something. If using a cell phone while driving is worse than driving drunk I can't imagine what playing games while driving must do...

  • s0l1dsnake007

    Posted Aug 27, 2009 4:53 pm GMT

    It might not be the right move ethically to stopped a ban on playing while driving, but to them its the right move for the market, anything that is against games is bad for business in their eyes.

  • smzee27

    Posted Aug 27, 2009 4:53 pm GMT

    Why did they defend playing video games while operating a motor vehicle? That's just a collision waiting to happen. On the other hand we didn't learn all the facts from this article, maybe there was more to it than just what was mentioned here.

  • VengfulOne

    Posted Aug 27, 2009 4:47 pm GMT

    My dream of moving to Honolulu and hooking up a Genesis in my car lives on!!

  • Paul_GameFury

    Posted Aug 27, 2009 4:28 pm GMT

    @Ruqus2009 and @lilmp89
    Sorry. I did misread it. The double negative threw me off. My fault. In that case, I agree with you.

  • lilmp89

    Posted Aug 27, 2009 3:56 pm GMT

    @Paul_GameFury
    What Ruqus2009 said. The ESA prevented the prohibition of playing games while driving. Like you, I feel there are enough distractions on the road. I'm sure that the law making cell phones illegal could be broadened to encompass video games too. I don't even like using the cell phone in the car myself.

  • Ruqus2009

    Posted Aug 27, 2009 3:39 pm GMT

    @Paul_Gamefury
    I think you misread the article. The ESA was FOR people playing games in their vehicles (or against the ban). IMO its definitely not something that should be going on in any state, regardless.

  • Paul_GameFury

    Posted Aug 27, 2009 3:14 pm GMT

    @lilmp89
    Well I'll be sure to stay off the roads that you are driving on. People are already too easily distracted when driving. They don't need a game taking their focus off the road.

    EDIT: After re-reading the article, I realized that I am an idiot.

  • endocrine

    Posted Aug 27, 2009 3:13 pm GMT

    The ESA does some good things and some really stupid things. It is hard to like or hate this organization.

  • Quinzark

    Posted Aug 27, 2009 3:02 pm GMT

    who the **** games while driving O_o

  • lilmp89

    Posted Aug 27, 2009 2:53 pm GMT

    Good to see their successes, BUT...I don't think they should have interfered with prohibiting playing games while operating a motor vehicle...I really don't think that was the right move at all.

  • MasterD3d

    Posted Aug 27, 2009 2:34 pm GMT

    Go, go ESA! The only thing I can say about piracy is that the people need to change their mindset. If they have a moral fiber left in them, they must cease this illegal and terrible act.

  • -Celeste-

    Posted Aug 27, 2009 2:34 pm GMT

    45M instances of priacy that the ESA will probably argue tooth and nail that that could have been 45M extra sold copies ... except NOT. Yea sure, some people pirate games when they can cause they dont want to spend the money. I'll be willing to bet that the vast majority do it because they will either play the game once or twice or get it to try the game out. 60$ is a tough pill to swallow on a game you may beat once and never play again. In a propserous economy, i'd be willing to throw down that money, but currently, people are watching the pennies.

  • 2bitSmOkEy

    Posted Aug 27, 2009 2:22 pm GMT

    WOOT 45 million instances of infringements and that is just the ones that got caught. Epic fail on the stopping of piracy. Just looking at the stats shows that the industry is the one that is going to have to change, not the people. You aren't going to convince that many people to stop downloading by adding in garbage drm that screw over the people that actually pay, on the contrary it promotes piracy. Its time to think up a real solution rather than continuing down this road that can't possibly have much length left.

  • MafiaBroad82

    Posted Aug 27, 2009 1:54 pm GMT

    No ESA!!!

  • johnny27

    Posted Aug 27, 2009 1:44 pm GMT

    Go ESA!!!

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