Industry Reacts to Californian Game Law

The Californian videogame law which would place the same restrictions on games as there is on pornography will be going for review by the US Supreme Court sometime towards the end of the year.

The law, which has been knocked back by local courts, was being framed as a way to protect children from violent videogames, making it illegal to sell them to a minor. Whilst this doesn’t sound like a bad thing, it would mean that videogames are classed as “obscene material” under the law. I’ve already written a hefty piece on all of this, so just check that out for some mind-numbing detail.

Various industry leaders have recently reacted to this situation, which all see it as a serious threat to videogames and their sales in California and, potentially, across the whole of America. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick, told CNBC that “It’s very, very surprising that the Supreme Court is hearing the case,” and that “I’m worried about it, and I think everybody in our business should be really worried about it.”

EA CEO John Riccitiello used a cinema analogy, saying that “imagine [the government] trying to tell Steven Spielberg ‘We need 50 different cuts of your movie for each state.’ It will screw us up in a real way.” There’s obviously a lot of concern over the issue, and with good merit.

Sony’s Jack Tretton also commented, in a rather more up-beat manor, that: “I think the Supreme Court is looking at it to potentially see if there’s something to it or to put an end to it once and for all” as it’s been brought up 12 times previously.

The whole article fairly interesting, so I suggest you have a read.

Via: Edge