By: Brian Crecente

Last week we broke the news that Entertainment Software Association president Doug Lowenstein was leaving next year the association he helped found.

Yesterday, the association confirmed the story and I had a chance to talk with Lowenstein about his career, the future of E3, the personal attacks and why he decided to leave both a job and an industry that he has been so long connected with.

"It's been obviously not an easy decision and not one I take lightly," Lowenstein told me in the phone interview. "This is a place I helped create and build and I have a lot of heart and soul in it, but I wouldn't leave unless I thought it was going to thrive and survive without me.

"This decision in no way reflects that I've lost interest."

Nintendo of America's Executive Vice President of Operations called Lowenstein a leading advocate for the game industry.

"Doug helped the video game industry grow from a minor curiosity at CES into a full-fledged member of the entertainment industry with a trade show larger than those for most rival forms of consumer entertainment," said Don James. "We thank him for his many years of dedicated service and for the high standards he has maintained."

The Entertainment Software Association, original named the Interactive Digital Software Association, was founded in 1994 by a group of six game development companies that met to talk about concerns raised by Sen. Joseph Lieberman about violent arcade game Mortal Kombat and computer game Night Trap

Lowenstein, who at the time worked at a public strategy firm, was brought on to provide advice. When the ad-hoc group decided to created the Entertainment Software Ratings Board and the Digital Software Association, Lowenstein was asked to assume leadership of the association. The DSA was renamed the ESA in 1999.

During his tenure with the organization, industry revenues have grown from about $3 billion to more than $10 billion and the association has expanded from two employees to 32 people working on a range of programs, from anti-piracy enforcement and domestic and international intellectual property policy to government and media relations and research.

While at the association, Lowenstein came to know and be mentored by Jack Valenti, the former head of the Motion Picture Association of America.

"To get to know Jack and be mentored by Jack and to be in his aurora has been one of the great joys of this job," he said.

While his tenure with the organization saw great growth within the industry, Lowenstein also had his conflicts and critics.

But he said he endured the personal and political attacks by reminding himself what he was fighting for.

"I went to bed every night feeling that fighting for artistic freedom and freedom of expression was a worthy cause and that transcends the video game industry," he said. "I think this is an industry I was lucky enough to get associated with as it was becoming a major force in entertainment and culture."

Most recently, Lowenstein drew some criticism when he announced that the association was mothballing it's annual, high-profile expo in Los Angeles and replacing it with a much more subdued event.

Next year will give the industry its first glimpse of this new show, but the man who spurred that chance won't be around to launch that new effort.

Lowenstein says he still sees that decision as a necessary one, and believes that the future show is in very good hands.

"I think people are vastly overrating my centrality to the effectiveness of the new E3 event," he said. "I think it will come off just fine and if it doesn't it will have nothing to do with my being here or not."

Lowenstein, 55, said he decided to leave the organization now both because of his age and the opportunity.

"Part of this decision was about looking ahead," he said. "I was extremely content and perfectly happy to live out my days as the president of the ESA, but you also have to look at the reality of where you are going to be a few years down the road. When you turn 60 your life doesn't end but professionally the opportunities kind of change."

"I've had other opportunities to leave in the past, but I've never taken it, he said. "The chance to start something new and build it and create it, which is what we had here, is an incredibly exciting opportunity."
Lowenstein said he made the decision "pretty recently."

In making that decision Lowenstein said he had to ask himself several questions.

"I had to ask myself whether I could leave this organization and leave it with my head held high," he said. "I felt I could, and then it just becomes a question of looking at your life, your opportunities and your family."

He said he plans to stay on through the end of February to help make the transition to a new president smooth.

While the board is still has to develop a process for replacing their president, they will likely decide to hire an executive search form and Lowenstein doesn't think there will be a lack of applicants.

While he declined to speculate on who should fill his shoes, it's likely that the board will select someone who is not a part of the industry.

Lowenstein himself has always said he wasn't a gamer, but more of an outsider.

" I don't come home from work and play video games," Lowenstein said, adding that he grew up in the passive media generation. " It's not the part of my life that I grew up with."

"But I don't think you would find anyone who could legitimately question the passion I brought fighting the issues of this industry.

"Irrespective of whether I'm a hardcore gamer, I am a huge fan of this industry and what it creates."