Entertainment Software Association

Entertainment Software Association

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Basic information
Founded	1994
Legal Structure	Non-Profit
Industry	Trade association, Lobbying
Also known as	ESA, Interactive Digital Software Association, IDSA
Official website	https://www.theesa.com/

Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is the trade association representing the United States video game industry. The group has opposed game-preservation exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) sought by libraries & museums, & it pointed to the industry's voluntary ratings & odds-disclosure measures when the Federal Trade Commission examined loot boxes in 2019. In 2026 the ESA opposed California's Protect Our Games Act (AB 1921), a Stop Killing Games bill that would require publishers to provide an offline version, a final patch, or a refund once a digital game's online services end.

Background

The ESA was founded in 1994 as the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA), the main trade group for the video game industry. That year the IDSA created the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), a self-regulatory body that assigns age & content ratings to video games. On July 21, 2003, the IDSA announced it had changed its name to the Entertainment Software Association, saying the new name more clearly described the organization's scope.

The ESA is based in Washington, D.C. It states its mission on its website:

Our mission is to help expand and protect the innovative and creative marketplace for the video game industry here in the United States.

The ESA also ran the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), the video game industry's annual trade show, until it announced the end of the long-running event on December 12, 2023.

Membership

The ESA represents video game publishers rather than selling products of its own, & its membership is documented through its initiatives & legislative filings. In March 2025 the ESA launched the Accessible Games Initiative at the Game Developers Conference with five founding member companies: Electronic Arts, Google, Microsoft, Nintendo of America, & Ubisoft. The initiative, which standardizes accessibility tags for digital storefronts, is managed by the ESA as the trade association representing the U.S. video game industry.

Leadership

Stan Pierre-Louis is the ESA's president & chief executive officer; he authored the organization's June 2026 op-ed opposing AB 1921.

Jennifer Gibbons is the ESA's vice president of state government affairs, a role she took on after joining the organization in 2024. She previously served as senior vice president of government affairs at the Toy Association & held senior staff roles in the California State Assembly, including chief of staff & communications director.

First Amendment litigation

The ESA has also litigated on behalf of its members over the First Amendment status of video games. In Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association (2011), a case in which the ESA was a named party, the U.S. Supreme Court held that video games are protected speech, affording them the same First Amendment protection as other forms of artistic expression. The Court's ruling stated:

Like the protected books, plays, and movies that preceded them, video games communicate ideas ... through many familiar literary devices (such as characters, dialogue, plot, and music) and through features distinctive to the medium ...

Incidents

Opposition to the Protect Our Games Act

Main article: Entertainment Software Association testimony on AB 1921

The ESA opposed California's Protect Our Games Act (AB 1921), part of the Stop Killing Games campaign for laws that keep purchased games playable after their online services end. The bill passed the State Assembly 43 to 16 on May 27, 2026, before failing passage in the Senate Business, Professions & Economic Development Committee on June 29, 2026 by a vote of 4 to 3, with reconsideration granted. AB 1921 would apply to digital games first sold or rereleased on or after January 1, 2028, & exempts subscription services & games offered for free.

In a June 9, 2026 op-ed published in the Sacramento Bee & on the ESA website, ESA president Stan Pierre-Louis argued that the bill misunderstands how online games are built:

Under Assembly Bill 1921, the Protect Our Games Act, when a game publisher decides to shut down a 'server-connected' digital game, developers would be forced to choose between keeping it running indefinitely, rebuilding the game to work without technical support or providing a full refund to everyone ...

California's Digital Democracy database records that the ESA sent lobbyist Timothy Lynch to testify against the bill before the Assembly Judiciary Committee on April 21, 2026. At the June 29, 2026 Senate committee hearing, ESA vice president of state government affairs Jennifer Gibbons appeared as the lead opposition witness, telling the committee the measure raised a question of consumer satisfaction, not consumer protection.

DMCA Section 1201 game-preservation exemptions

Every three years the U.S. Copyright Office weighs exemptions to the DMCA's anti-circumvention rules, & the ESA has repeatedly opposed exemptions that would let libraries & museums preserve out-of-print online games. In its opposition to an exemption request from the Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment (MADE), the ESA said it supported preserving video games only under circumstances that do not jeopardize game companies' rights under copyright law.

During the 2024 rulemaking, the Video Game History Foundation sought an exemption to allow remote access to out-of-print games held by libraries. The ESA opposed the request, saying a substantial market still exists for classic games. It wrote:

Enabling widespread remote access to preserved games with minimal supervision would present a serious risk to an important market.

The U.S. Copyright Office rejected the exemption in late October 2024, with its Register of Copyrights finding that the petitioners had not met their burden for the exemption.

Loot boxes and the 2019 FTC workshop

On August 7, 2019, the Federal Trade Commission held a public workshop titled Inside the Game: Unlocking the Consumer Issues Surrounding Loot Boxes, examining randomized in-game purchases & their similarities to gambling. Ahead of the workshop, the ESA issued a statement emphasizing the industry's existing safeguards:

The Federal Trade Commission previously recognized that the video game industry excels in partnering with caregivers and consumers by providing reliable video game ratings and comprehensive information. The industry also provides robust parental controls that ensure parents maintain control over in-game spending.

At the workshop, ESA chief counsel of tech policy Michael Warnecke announced commitments from Nintendo, Sony, & Microsoft to disclose loot-box odds for new games by the end of 2020, & a number of ESA member publishers made a similar pledge for their own titles.

E3 2019 registrant data leak

In August 2019, a flaw on the ESA's E3 registration website exposed a publicly downloadable spreadsheet containing the names, addresses, & phone numbers of more than 2,000 journalists, content creators, & industry professionals who had registered for E3 2019. The ESA said a website vulnerability had made the contact list public & that it took steps to secure the data once notified.

Lobbying

The ESA is one of the video game industry's principal lobbying organizations at the federal & state levels. The Center for Responsive Politics recorded almost $5.5 million in ESA federal lobbying spending in 2013. The association's federal political action committee, the ESA PAC (Federal Election Commission committee ID C00439216), registered as a trade-association PAC on October 1, 2007.

In California, the ESA's lobbyists have testified against AB 1921 & on other bills involving digital games & consumer privacy.

See also

• Right to Repair
• Planned obsolescence