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The
Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association (IEMA), for those not
in the know, is the key North American non-profit retail trade
organization dedicated to serving the needs of major video game and
interactive software retailers. Its members include Wal-Mart, Target,
Toys R Us, and EB Games. Prior to forming the IEMA in 1997, Hal Halpin
founded and published the industry news outlet, GameDaily, as well as
another business publication, IE Magazine.
The
IEMA has had a particularly high profile recently in making public
statements over the wealth of U.S. State-specific laws that attempt to
restrict violent video games in various legislative ways. In this
exclusive interview, Gamasutra spoke to Halpin about the continuing
problems of these lawsuits, the effect of the Grand Theft Auto 'Hot Coffee' mod on the retail environment, the rise of digital distribution, and more.
Problem For Games?
"As
of this minute, [the game retail industry's] three major opponents are
the State of California, the State of Illinois and the State of
Michigan," said Halpin. "More specifically, they are those states'
respective attorney generals and their governors, who each signed into
law bills which their legislatures knew full-well would be in violation
of the First Amendment. This political opportunism and grandstanding
for the perception of quick votes and a move to the 'moral high ground'
has been costly for the industry and for the general public, with the
only true beneficiaries being the misguided politicians who sponsored
and supported those bills. It's a travesty of justice and a waste of
valuable taxpayer resources."
Jack Thompson and the Hot Coffee Debate
"Attorney
Jack Thompson is someone whom I believe has his heart in the right
place actually," Halpin said. "I think it's clear to all involved that
he earnestly believes his perspective shall be the one to prevail and
he is willing to put all of himself - personally and professionally -
into that fight...a position which I don't see countered on the 'pro'
side of the debate. That said, we take issue with his opinion that our
members have not done enough to stem the sale of Mature-rated games to
minors, and in that regard, we appear to be adversarial."
Along
the same lines, Halpin believes that the "Hot Coffee" fiasco, which
involved the public discovery of hidden, sexually explicit content in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas,
to be a milestone not only for the gaming industry, but for the
entertainment industry as a whole. "All at once it exposed our
vulnerabilities, galvanized our opinions and beliefs, shed light upon
weaknesses and empowered those on the 'con' side of the debate with
renewed optimism," he said. "The ripple effects of that matter will be
long felt and have already begun shaping the future of our business."
And
as for the ESRB's call for developers to reveal all content contained
in a game's disc, accessible or not? "The 'hidden content' issue is
really a non-starter, insomuch as the ESRB requires publishers to
disclose all content in the game, playable or non-playable, and they
always have. That important fact is something that we all now
appreciate and thoroughly understand."
"The
IEMA has been supportive of the ESRB and self-regulatory efforts since
before our formal incorporation, and it's my opinion that it is quite
simply the most comprehensive ratings system that I have seen to date.
The IEMA members and ESRB have had our share of disagreements on a
variety of matters, but generally I think we work together quite
effectively. We have been fairly vocal about increased retail
involvement in understanding the idiosyncrasies of the ratings process
and its management, and we have been making slow but steady progress
toward that end."
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The oft-controversial Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
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The Elusive AO Rating
Selling
interactive software with an "Adult-Only" rating is nearly impossible
in the United States, at least at the retail level. "Our members choose
not to stock certain categories of product simply because it doesn't
serve their customer's wants and needs. So in much the same way that we
generally do not stock X-rated movies, we don't offer AO-rated games,"
he said. "My personal opinion is that there should absolutely be more
AO-rated product available in the market. While I'm not a First
Amendment absolutist, I believe in expression, and I also would hope
that like music and movies adults interested in purely adult content
should be able to purchase or rent similar content on differing media."
Halpin
continued: "That said, I find it highly unlikely that our members will
change their respective policies regarding AO games going forward
simply because it's just not what their customers want. There may well
be a time where the market has matured enough to support another
extension of the channel which caters to adult content... there may
even be some now that I'm not aware of, but I'm not sure that we're
there just yet."
Digital Distribution?
With
the recent surge of digital distribution services, such as GameTap and
Electronic Arts' own EA Downloader service, does Halpin feel that
digital distribution could be a major opponent for his clientele?
Halpin
laughs as he responds. "I've been sitting on panels at industry
conferences for 12 years having a substantially-similar question raised
about the impending doom of traditional retail due to developer and
publisher-driven digital distribution models. Heck, I've even sat next
to would-be competitors who told me point blank how they were going to
be the next Wal-Mart of video games and my members would be rendered
obsolete. Very few of those pundits are still around these days, and I
think it's primarily due to overconfidence in one's product/technology
versus the human equation. Look, Wal-Mart is going to be the next
Wal-Mart, not XYZ Technologies."
Laughs
aside, Halpin does take the subject seriously. "I have been watching
the evolution of some very compelling solutions recently which I think
could work with our current channel architecture and frankly, giving
consumers another option for how they could buy products online makes a
lot of sense: buy the product as packaged goods or buy it as a digital
download. Absolutely."
One
major argument for digital distribution is the continued complaints
heard by publishers about "shelf space," the struggle to physically fit
one's product on a store shelf amongst all the others. "It's important
to note something as it relates to developer's want and need to get
access to more shelf space: we already created it," he said. "The IEMA
led the way to reducing the size of PC game boxes in order to fit 33%
more product on the same store shelves. Additionally, we added more
square feet of shelf space and created selling opportunities for six
viable and sustainable platforms: Xbox, PS2, GC, PC, GBA, and now
PSP/UMD. If you're not able to get your products on store shelves it's
now very clearly a matter between developer and publisher."
Halpin suggests: "The excuse of years past of blaming the merchants for
being stingy with square footage, or favoritism with genres is
obsolete. If you go into any one of our member's stores you'll find a
wider and deeper assortment now than you have ever seen, and it's about
to get bigger - during the transition phase of the cycle. So yes,
digital distribution has grown from a fraction of a percentage to twice
that fraction of the same percentage year-on-year, and I'm sure it will
be a trend that continues, but developers should really focus on the
here and now."
Branding for Charity
"One
of the seldom covered aspects of what we do is our self-indulgent
passion for charitable giving," Halpin said. "In shrinking the size of
the PC games box we unknowingly created a need for standardizing the
platform identifier as well. Unlike the console platforms, 'PC' as a
category isn't owned or monitored by a corporation, so we were finding
thirty-some-odd differing types of platform icons. Working with
publishers, we created and monitor the now-standardized PC
identification marks (PC-CD, PC-DVD, etc.), the small rectangular black
and white logos. By creating that trademark and giving it to the
industry, by way of a royalty-free licensing agreement with publishers,
we receive in three finished copies of each and every game which uses
our mark. Which was great for the first few weeks after implementation,
but quickly overwhelmed our offices."
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IEMA's standardized PC identification markings
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The
IEMA head concludes by explaining: "We decided then that we'd tie up
with children's charities and donate the games to hospitals, shelters,
homes and schools where they could truly affect change. We re-started
the game industry's oldest charity, Games for Good, and use it as a
conduit for people and companies in our industry to give to those in
need - be it cash, games or their time. And I have to say it is the
most rewarding thing that we are privileged to do. The stories that we
receive in about how those games - games that your readers created -
are being used to give comfort, inspiration, education or just a
distraction are heartwarming and something we can all be proud of."
Amen to that.
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