Gamertell

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum used to be similar to nearly every other politician, believing that video games would train young children to be mass murderers. He took particular issue with the Wii version of Manhunt 2 due to the fact that he thought the Wii’s motion controls would enable kids to act out their “violent tendencies.”

According to GamePolitics, the person who planted that seed in his head was, of course, a certain Jack Thompson.

However, now that the holiday season is upon us, McCollum is taking a stance that other politicians are beginning to take - cautioning parents to exercise restraint when it comes to…

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One of the main things that hurts the video game industry is piracy. Some individuals know how to hack Xbox 360 or PSP consoles and play illegal copies of games on them with relative ease. There are DRM protection methods to help curb piracy on PC but consoles are quickly becoming another avenue for pirates to pillage.

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) isn’t taking this problem lightly as it had in a recent raid in Guadalajara, Mexico. With the help of Mexican authorities, the ESA recovered a treasure cove of illegal games.

The San Juan de Dios Market was the target…

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After three years since the industry event became an industry-only function, it looks like the Electronic Entertainment Expo, better known as E3, will once again open its doors to the public.

The newly formatted event will be capped at 40,000 people and will be held during the first week of June 2008. The first day, June 2, 2009, will see the three major companies holding their press events while the event will be open to the public on…

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I reached out to indie game developer GameCock to see what it has planned for this year’s E3. As expected and much like last year, GameCock is not officially attending E3. Instead, those rockin’ ‘Cocks like to handle things their own, very public way.

Although they didn’t divulge any of this year’s antics besides a bid for the ESA Presidency, they did at least reveal this year’s anti-E3 roost…

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When Activision announced it was canceling (or not renewing?) its Entertainment Software Association (ESA) membership, many speculated the choice was a result of rising membership costs and the leadership capabilities of ESA President Michael Gallagher. This theory started to make even more sense after LucasArts, id Software, and Crave Entertainment all announced within weeks of each other they were also leaving the ESA.

Although all the companies expressed their well wishes to the ESA, Crave and Activision decided to delve into the specifics of its decision…

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Although there has been some speculation that E3 and the ESA are dissolving due to companies pulling out, E3 still has a fairly impressive list of confirmed participants.

Here’s the complete, official list of companies that will be showing at E3 provided by The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) (44 companies as of July 7, 2008)...

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The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is falling apart as major industry players are leaving the organization. Activision and Vivendi were the first to bid adieu to ESA soon followed by LucasArts. More recently, on May 23, 2008, iD Software also joined the list of emigrants and decided not to renew its ESA membership.

ESA has pretended to be calm and under control in its stilted press notes acknowledging the departures. But the powers that be at the organization must be well aware of the dire consequences of the exodus. According to Jeff Brown, EA’s VP of corporate communications, during an interview to GameIndustry, the solution to the current predicament is simple: ESA should…

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Nintendo might be winning the console war but it has another front to fight on. It has long been battling game pirates around the world, working closely with local authorities to clamp down on pirates in several countries including Mexico and China.

So when the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) submitted a “Special 301” filing with the US Trade Representatives regarding videogame piracy around the world, Nintendo just had to comment on it, out of its sheer repugnance for piracy.

The console manufacturer wants…

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In the recent race to the White House, politicians are not the only people fighting to be heard. In a recent issue of CitizenLink parents fear ESA’s (Entertainment Software Association) most recent activity of funding game friendly candidates.

According to CitizenLink, parents fear that ESA’s latest actions would “sway lawmakers” into allowing video games to produce more violent and sexually explicit games. The fear is apparent in CNN’s latest situation room blog where the site asks, “Should the government be able to limit violence on TV?“

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Industry-friendly candidates will be getting financial support this election year from a political action committee established last fall by the Electronic Software Association (ESA). The New York Times spoke to ESA chief executive Michael D. Gallagher on Tuesday (January 15, 2008) regarding the status of the new committee and how it could affect politicians this year:

We will be writing checks to campaigns by the end of this quarter. This is an important step in the political maturation process of the industry that we are ready to take now. This is about identifying and supporting champions for the game industry on Capitol Hill so that they support us.

With the presidential candidates having already surpassed the twenty million dollar mark a full year before the election, $5,000 hardly seems like big money. But Gallagher’s action committee intends to write about $50,000 to $100,000 worth of donations, which is…

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