One of the duties of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is lobbying various members of the federal government, and according to the AP, that amount totaled $1.2 million during the quarter ending June 2009. The total is more than the ESA had spent in the previous four quarters combined, when the company's lobbying efforts came to less than a million dollars.
A report of the ESA's federal lobbying activities, uncovered by GamePoltics, shows a surprisingly wide variety of issues being lobbied for, including obvious ones like first amendment protection, content/video game sale regulation, and intellectual property enforcement to more unusual ones like immigration reform. The list of agencies lobbied includes both houses of congress, various trade commissions, offices dealing with trade, departments specializing in enforcement and the FBI.
Lobbying is something that tends to fill people with ambivalence, but this shows that video games are a "big boy" entertainment industry along with movies and television and that the ESA is willing to "play ball" with certain federal agencies.
