Interactive Digital Software Association
Logo of the Entertainment Software Association.
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| Trade association | |
| Founded | April 1994 (as Interactive Digital Software Association) July 16, 2003 (as Entertainment Software Association) |
| Headquarters | Washington, D.C., U.S. |
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Area served
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United States |
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Key people
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Strauss Zelnick (Chairman) Michael Gallagher (President, CEO) |
| Website | www |
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 16, 2003. It is based in Washington, D.C..
Most of the top publishers in the gaming world (or their American subsidiaries) are members of 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.
The ESA also organizes the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) trade expo in Los Angeles, California,
The ESA’s policy is based by member companies serving on the ESA’s three Working Groups:
The concept of the IDGA/ESA arose from the controversies that the violence depicted in the video game Mortal Kombat drew. This led to a United States Congress hearing in late 1993 where the video game industry was put under scrutiny for the level of violence in games like Mortal Kombat and Night Trap. During the hearings, Sega and Nintendo blamed the other for the situation, citing differences in how they would rate the content of games for players. Following the hearings, Congressman Joe Lieberman proposed the Video Game Ratings Act of 1994, which would have set a government-oversighted commission to establish a ratings system for video games, and threatened to push it through legislation if the video game industry did not voluntarily come up with one of its own. Recognizing the threat of government oversight, the companies decided to establish the IDGA to be a unified front and represent all video game companies at this level, and subsequently developed the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) to create a voluntarily but standardized rating approach to video games. In July 1994, IDGA representatives returned to Congress to present the ESRB, which Congress accepted and became the standard for the American industry.
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