Educational Gaming Commons

Piracy, Trade and Other Policy Impediments to Export Growth

Steven Mitchell, VP, Entertainment Software Association

• ESA represents 95% of US game publishers. 12-13 billion a year sales.
• Game industry growth - 9.5 billion in 2007, 28% increase over 2006.
• 80,000 employees in game industry in US
• Global market - 49 billion by 2011!
• Game exports are important for continued growth.

Who benefits?

•  - local developers
•  - publishers
•  - local industries
•  - related industries - TVs, broadband, etc. For every $1 spent in games, $1 in this area spent locally.

Barriers to Export

•  - piracy. In some places exceeds 80-90%! Why expand into a country with piracy at this level?
•  - excessive tariffs run the price of consoles and games way up
•  - time to delivery a new game. This takes too long. By the time it's available legit, it's old news in the gaming world.
•  - excessive reviews by local govt.
•  - music performance rights. Some places (Canada for example) want a royalty paid for music in games when they are downloaded. This is a major disincentive to e-commerce.