Gamertell

The second official day of E3 2008 was highlighted with a keynote speech by the Entertainment Software Associations (ESA) CEO, Mike Gallagher (1:00 p.m. PT, July 16, 2008).

A stand-at-a-podium affair, Gallagher was obviously gung-ho about the industry he represents although the low attendance indicated that not many people were not very gung-ho to listen to him speak (although, according to Gamepot, a few more were in attendance for Gallagher’s speech than Gov. Rick Perry’s) . His keynote was more a call to the industry to unite and work together than industry stats, though there were a few of those, too.

Here’s a recap of his keynote as gathered from Live Blogs linked below:

• Gallagher thinks that in several years, this will be the era “we declare as video gaming’s great comeuppance.” “We’re in a new era of acceptance for video and computer games. When we look back, we’ll see now is the time that our industry became an accepted part of our cultural landscape,” (according to Joystiq)
• Here are the stats: $19 billion in 2007, “an astonishing nine games were sold every second of every day last year,” and, as Gamespot reports, the"industry employs more than 80,000 people in 31 states with a total compensation of $2.2 billion, and that figure is expected to rise to 250,000 workers by 2009.”
• He notes that the elderly dig gaming, in some case more so than traditional tabletop card games: “Who would have imagined a couple of years ago that nursing home residents would be more excited about video games than Bingo or Bridge.”
• ESA declares that “videogame” is actually spelled “video game” (two words) and not one. Sorry guys who wrote the APish Videogame Style Guide.
• He gave a few nods to the Texas Gov.’s keynote, indicating that now the game industry actually works with politicians whereas ESA predecessor Doug Lowenstein often had to work against them.
• He had a call to cooperation for the game industry to create ads against opposers (which he addresses again later).
• Also gave a few nods to proactive games including Re-Mission, Virtual Iraq, Food Force and Folding@Home
• He challenged the industry do the usual things that big companies and industries need to remember: welcome new gamers, help parents (understand games), broaden the use of games, remember the core audience (aka base) and unite behind public policy. Essentially a recap to his entire keynote.
• He ended with, “I challenge you to name another industry that has a more passionate consumer base than ours.”

Read [Kombo] Also Read [Joystiq] Also Read [Gamespot]

NOTE: Image borrowed from Joystiq.

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