Michael Gallagher, the Chief Executive of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is determined to gain the support of US politicians in an attempt to gain support for the games industry.

The ESA, the association represents the big movers in the games industry; Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, EA and the new kids on the block Disney. Last year it set up a political action committee (PAC) which Gallagher says in the New York Times will donate between $50,000 to $100,000 this year to national candidates in a move similar to actions already carried out by the film and music industries.

Gallagher also aims to mobilize the 100,000 plus gamers who have joined the ESA’s Video Game Voters Network to aid in lobbying politicians on gaming issues.

“If I can walk into the office of a member of Congress and tell them we have 20,000 voters in their state who are already signed up to write letters and act based on game-related issues that concern them, that’s powerful,” he said.

This is a great move forward for the industry I love as in recent years there have been numerous events that have cast a cloud over the industry, namely the fiasco concerning the ’sex scene’ in GTA:San Andreas. As such for the ESA making moves to gain support of politicians in Congress can only be seen as a positive sign.

This gets my support.

Tags: Industry, Politics

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 17th, 2008 at 2:36 pm and is filed under Games politics, General News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.