The Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association (IEMA) was a United States-based non-profit organization dedicated to serving the business interests of leading retailers that sell Interactive entertainment software (including video games, multimedia entertainment, peripherals and other software). Member companies of the IEMA collectively accounted for approximately seventy-five percent of the $10 billion annual interactive entertainment business in the United States. The association was established in 1997 by Hal Halpin, its president and founder, and counts among its member companies the largest retailers of games including Walmart, Target Corporation, Blockbuster Entertainment and Circuit City. The IEMA also sponsored an important annual trade show in the promotion of the business of the video game industry called the "Executive Summit".
In April 2006, the Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association merged with the Video Software Dealers Association to form the Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA). [1]
The IEMA was largely responsible for the acceptance and industry wide adoption of the self-regulatory ESRB ratings system, having endorsed it and subsequently required software publishers to rate all games in order to have their product sold on store shelves. The IEMA had also worked with parallel trade groups in the business including the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) in defeating laws that would prohibit the sale of Mature-rated games to minors. The group instead voluntarily committed to carding policies and procedures, requiring Government-issued photo identification, for all M-rated games - in much the same way that movie theatres voluntarily ask for ID for admittance to R-rated movies.
The IEMA played a major role in improving, from a retailer's perspective, the way most PC games are packaged. In 2000, many retailers were becoming disenchanted with the salability of PC games as compared with their more profitable console game counterparts as products. Oversized software boxes were blamed for a lack of productivity per square foot (the profitability of a particular item sold at retail based upon its foot print). The IEMA worked with leading game publishers in creating the now-standard IEMA-sized box, essentially a double-thick DVD-sized plastic or cardboard box, which effectively increased the profitability per square foot by over 33% and appeased merchants and developers alike.
In creating the new box size the IEMA found itself in the unlikely position of platform guardian (where each console platform had a first-party publisher to oversee standardization matters, PC games by their very nature did not). As such, the industry pressured the organization to develop a platform identification mark which would unify the display and focus the customer's brand perception. Again the IEMA worked with publishers to create a new standard "PC" icon, and would provide its use on a royalty-free basis to the industry.
As part of the contract that computer game publishers must sign in order to use the PC icon(s), they agreed to provide three finished copies of each game that they create which uses one or more of the trademarks, as is standard practice. The IEMA chose to use the influx of new software to re-launch the video game industry's first charitable organization, Games for Good. GfG essentially acts as a repository for the games business. It receives in donated items and redistributes them to partner charities: children's hospitals, shelters, schools and other appropriate non-profit institutions.
In addition to its roles above the IEMA handled lobbying and legislative efforts with regard to First Amendment matters which concern its members. Association executives routinely testified before State and Federal agencies and committees on behalf of the game industry, as well as providing representation to the media and speaking on behalf of channel-oriented perspectives at trade shows and conferences. The IEMA worked on both inter and intra-industry matters for its members including RFID, Source-tagging, Organized Retail Crime Loss prevention, digital distribution.
![]() | Wikinews has related news: |
![]() | Wikinews has related news: |
The IEMA had been accused of not following through on promises made with regard to stemming the sale of Mature-rated games to minors. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) as well as special interest groups including the National Institute on Media and the Family (NIMF) have performed sting operations on IEMA member company stores and found that retailers continue to sell M-rated games to children. Critics claim that the organization makes public statements that are meant to appease law-makers and the press but does not follow through with penalties imposed upon members which run afoul of their commitment. They would furthermore like to see the IEMA more directly involved with its membership in educating store-level staff about the ESRB ratings system. Others have praised the association for its swift response to the 2005 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Hot Coffee minigame controversy, in which the rating for the game was changed from "M" to "AO" (Adults Only). Upon receiving notification of the change, all IEMA retailers removed the product from store shelves within 24 hours.
The 3DO Company, also known as 3DO, was an American video game company. It was founded in 1991 by Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins, in a partnership with seven other companies. After 3DO's flagship video game console, the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, failed in the marketplace, the company exited the hardware business and became a third-party video game developer. It went bankrupt in 2003 due to poor sales of its games. Its headquarters were in Redwood City, California in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is a self-regulatory organization that assigns age and content ratings to consumer video games in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The ESRB was established in 1994 by the Entertainment Software Association, in response to criticism of controversial video games with excessively violent or sexual content, particularly after the 1993 congressional hearings following the releases of Mortal Kombat and Night Trap for home consoles and Doom for home computers. The industry, pressured with potential government oversight of video game ratings from these hearings, established both the IDSA and the ESRB within it to create a voluntary ratings system based on the Motion Picture Association of America film rating system with additional considerations for video game interactivity.
2003 saw many sequels and prequels in video games, such as Final Fantasy X-2, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and WWE SmackDown! Here Comes the Pain. New intellectual properties included Beyond Good & Evil, Call of Duty, Manhunt, PlanetSide, True Crime: Streets of LA, and Viewtiful Joe.
The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is the trade association of the video game industry in the United States. It was formed in April 1994 as the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA) and renamed on July 21, 2003. It is based in Washington, D.C. Most of the top publishers in the gaming world are members of the ESA, including Capcom, Electronic Arts, Konami, Microsoft, Bandai Namco Entertainment, Nintendo, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Square Enix, Take-Two Interactive, Ubisoft, and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.
Video game censorship are efforts by an authority to limit access, censor content, or regulate video games or specific video games due to the nature of their content.
Video game packaging refers to the physical storage of the contents of a PC or console game, both for safekeeping and shop display. In the past, a number of materials and packaging designs were used, mostly paperboard or plastic. Today, most console and PC games are shipped in (CD) jewel cases or (DVD) keep cases, with little differences between them.
"Hot Coffee" is an unofficial name for a minigame in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, a 2004 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North. The minigame is not playable through normal means; the game must be modded to access it. When enabled, "Hot Coffee" allows players, as protagonist Carl "CJ" Johnson, to have animated sexual intercourse with an in-game girlfriend.
Douglas Lowenstein is the founder and former President of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). He resigned on February 12, 2007 to head up the newly formed Private Equity Council.
The United States Family Entertainment Protection Act (FEPA) was a bill introduced by Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY), and co-sponsored by Senators Joe Lieberman (D-CT), Tim Johnson (D-SD) and Evan Bayh (D-IN) on November 29, 2005. The bill called for a federal mandate enforcement of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) ratings system for video games in order to protect children from inappropriate content.
Hal Halpin is an American computer game executive and entrepreneur, and is the president and founder of the Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA).
Games for Good (GfG) is a non-profit charitable organization which raises funds and products from within the entertainment industry and donates them to child-centric partners. Started in 1998 by a group of volunteers, GfG was led by industry veteran Lynne Killey. It raises money and requests that game publishers donate video and computer games to them for re-distribution to children's charities. It hosts dinners, silent auctions and parties.
The Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA) is the not-for-profit international trade association dedicated to advancing the interests of the $32 billion home entertainment industry.
Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) is a United States-based non-partisan, non-government, non-profit organization dedicated to the interests of individuals who play computer and video games in the United States and Canada.
Don James is an American video game executive and currently serves as the executive vice president of operations for Nintendo of America.
A video game content rating system is a system used for the classification of video games based on suitability for target audiences. Most of these systems are associated with and/or sponsored by a government, and are sometimes part of the local motion picture rating system. The utility of such ratings has been called into question by studies that publish findings such as 90% of teenagers claim that their parents "never" check the ratings before allowing them to rent or buy video games, and as such, calls have been made to "fix" the existing rating systems. Video game content rating systems can be used as the basis for laws that cover the sales of video games to minors, such as in Australia. Rating checking and approval is part of the game localization when they are being prepared for their distribution in other countries or locales. These rating systems have also been used to voluntarily restrict sales of certain video games by stores, such as the German retailer Galeria Kaufhof's removal of all video games rated 18+ by the USK following the Winnenden school shooting.
In May 2006, the North American Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) changed the rating of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, a video game for PCs, the Xbox 360, and eventually the PlayStation 3, from "Teen" (13+) to "Mature" (17+). The ESRB cited the presence of content not considered in their original review in the published edition of Oblivion. This included detailed depictions of blood and gore and sexually explicit content. The sexually explicit content was an art file, made accessible by a third-party modification called the Oblivion Topless Mod, that rendered the game with topless female characters.
Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, 564 U.S. 786 (2011), was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court that struck down a 2005 California law banning the sale of certain violent video games to children without parental supervision. In a 7–2 decision, the Court upheld the lower court decisions and nullified the law, ruling that video games were protected speech under the First Amendment as other forms of media.
Video gaming in the United States is one of the fastest-growing entertainment industries in the country. According to a 2010 study released by the Entertainment Software Association, the computer and the video game industry added $4.9 billion to the economy of the United States. There are some estimates that by 2015 the worldwide gaming industry will possibly reach $70.1 billion.
On December 7, 1993, and March 5, 1994, members of the combined United States Senate Committees on Governmental Affairs and the Judiciary held congressional hearings with several spokespersons for companies in the video game industry including Nintendo and Sega, involving violence in video games and the perceived impacts on children. The hearing was a result of concerns raised by members of the public on the 1993 releases of Night Trap, Mortal Kombat and later Doom which was released after the first hearing. Besides general concerns related to violence in video games, the situation had been inflamed by a moral panic over gun violence, as well as the state of the industry and an intense rivalry between Sega and Nintendo.