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Kotaku
Gamers (at least, American gamers), the ESA have got your back. Last year they spent over $2,000,000 on lobbying governments, politicians and interest groups, all in the interests of you and your...interests. $2 mil doesn't sound like that much to me (I thought big wheels needed a lot more grease), but the Motion Picture Association of America apparently only spent $1,600,000, so that must count for something when everyone's sizing each other up in the entertainment industry locker room.
But just what did all that money go on?
The ESA official Web site lists intellectual property protection, content regulation, and efforts to regulate the Internet as its main areas of interest. Interestingly, the ESA also lobbies on free trade and Internet gambling, which Bobby Kotick, CEO of ESA-member-company Activision, recently referred to as the "Holy Grail" of the industry. According to the group's spokesperson, the ESA lobbies to advocate the strongest possible intellectual property regulations in trade agreements. As for gambling, he said the ESA's efforts are focused ensuring legislation "is not written so broadly that our members' online businesses are negatively impacted."They're also involved in various legal stoushes in California geared towards earning better working conditions for developers and earning tax credit for any games produced in the state.
Brendan Sinclair at GameSpot was the man with the Sherlock Holmes hat on this one - hit the link for the full article, it's a tidy piece of investigative work.
ESA lobbying tops $2 million [GameSpot]
