Lowenstein Leaving ESA, Throne Empty
After 12 years as president of the Electronic Software Association (although it was called the Interactive Digital Software Association when he founded it in 1994), Doug Lowenstein has announced he’ll be leaving us in the spring. The IDSA, and later the ESA that we’ve all come to know and deride, was meant to fight against software piracy and support the ESRB, which the ESA created (and defended with varying levels of efficacy). No specific reason has been named, but the accumulative derailment of the ESA’s mission into a fundbucket for its increasingly elaborate marquee event, E3, and this year’s decision to hamstring the E3 trade show left the organization (and perhaps its leadership) in a bit of a quandary.
And in a quandary it shall remain, unless some solid leadership materializes; with intense political pressure on the gaming industry, states, countries, and continents (well, Europe) trying to control game sales, and next year’s E3…um…GamePro Expo up in the air, the ESA faces a watershed.
Where the legendary Lowenstein will go and what he’ll do is a mystery known to no one, not even a Level 20 Diviner – although a shadowy stranger called Kotaku told me that our man Doug has “accepted the top position with a still-forming trade organization that would represent a consortium of retail investment firms.” I’ll get back to you when our Diviner confirms that info.
For now, pray that Jack Thompson doesn’t have a secret army of legal winged monkeys prepared to descend upon the helpless gaming kingdom…queendom…land.
Lowenstein Steps Down as Head of ESA [1Up]
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Posted to Video Games on 19 December 2006
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