Where Politics And Video Games Collide

Of course Hal doesn't support a universal ratings system. He stands to profit from the current system, and the ECA stands to profit from the confusion generated by having competing systems.

The ESRB ratings are trademarked, and game publishers are forced to pay the ESRB a small fee for using it. The fee is tiny, not worth worying about to companies who spend millions on advertising games, but considering the amount of games that have these ratings on them every year, it's a tidy sum for the ESRB.

IN 2005 the ESRB formed the ESRB Retail board, which included Wal-Mart, Toys R Us, Circuit City, Target, and Blockbuster Entertainment.

What has this got to do with the ECA?

Well, Hal used to be president of IEMA, the key North American non-profit retail trade organization serving the needs of major video game and interactive software retailers, including Wal-Mart, Toys R Us, Circuit City, Target, and Blockbuster Entertainment.

So Hal gets all these companies to sign up the the ESRB and then goes off to form the ECA, which champions gamers rights, and fights at every turn any method to alter or change the way the ESRB is run and monitored, and the way ratings are applied.

Coincidence?

Universal ratings have worked in other countries very successfully, and anyone REALLY interested in helping gamers as consumers would do a review of these systems and cost-analyse them against the current systems, instead of dishing up two second soundbytes to placate their corporate masters and keep the kiddies happy.