| Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association |
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Information About ™Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT MERCHANTS ASSOCIATION | |
| 1997 establishments | |
| video game organizations | |
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RATINGS The IEMA is largely responsible for the acceptance and industry wide adoption of the self-regulatory ESRB ratings system, having endorsed it and subsequently required software publishers to rate all games in order to have their product sold on store shelves. The IEMA has also worked with parallel trade groups in the business including the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) in defeating laws that would prohibit the sale of Mature-rated games to minors. The group instead voluntarily committed to carding policies and procedures, requiring Government-issued photo identification, for all M-rated games - in much the same way that movie theatres voluntarily ask for ID for admittance to R-rated movies. BOX STANDARDIZATION Little-known is the IEMA's role in quite literally saving the PC Game category from extinction. In 2000 , many retailers were becoming disenchanted with the salability of PC games as compared with their more profitable console game counterparts as products. Oversized software boxes were to blame for their lack of productivity per square foot (the profitability of a particular item sold at retail based upon its foot print). The IEMA worked with leading game publishers in creating the now-standard IEMA-sized box, essentially a double-thick DVD-sized plastic or cardboard box, which effectively increased the profitability per square foot by over 33% and appeased merchants and developers alike. PC IDENTIFICATION MARK In creating the new box size the IEMA found itself in the unlikely position of platform guardian (where each console platform had a first-party publisher to oversee standardization matters, PC games by their very nature did not). As such, the industry pressured the organization to develop a platform identification mark which would unify the display and focus the customer's brand perception. Again the IEMA worked with publishers to create a new standard PC Icon , and would provide its use on a royalty-free basis to the industry. CHARITABLE WORK As part of the contract that computer game publishers must sign in order to use the PC icon(s), they agree to provide three finished copies of each game that they create which uses one or more of the trademarks, as is standard practice. The IEMA chose to use the influx of new software to re-launch the video game industry's first charitable organization, Games For Good . GfG essentially acts as a repository for the games business. It receives in donated items and redistributes them to partner charities: children's hospitals, shelters, schools and other appropriate non-profit institutions. REPRESENTATION In addition to its roles above the IEMA handles lobbying and legislative efforts with regard to First Amendment matters which concern its members. Association executives routinely testify before State and Federal agencies and committees on behalf of the game industry, as well as providing representation to the media and speaking on behalf of channel-oriented perspectives at trade shows and conferences. The IEMA works on both inter and intra-industry matters for its members including RFID , Source-tagging, Organized Retail Crime Loss Prevention , Digital Distribution . CONTROVERSY The IEMA has been accused of not following through on promises made with regard to stemming the sale of Mature-rated games to minors. The Hot Coffee Mod scandal, in which the rating for the game was changed from "M" to "AO" (Adults Only). Upon receiving notification of the change, all IEMA retailers removed the product from store shelves within 24 hours. SEE ALSO
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