Mr. Moore
Goes To Washington
from the Daily
Radar/Sega, © 2000
On Monday the FTC released a report
entitled Marketing Violence to Children, which created
waves of tension in the entertainment industry. The
report condemned several sectors of the industry
(including the games industry) for marketing violent
entertainment to young, impressionable audiences.
Seeming to forget issues of parental responsibility
and individual restraint, the report blames the
entertainment industry as a whole for the recent
disturbing rash of child violence. Harkening back to
his wife's diatribe against violent rap lyrics in the
mid '80s, Vice President Al Gore issued a response to
the report. The 2000 presidential candidate stated
that, if he were elected in November, he would give
the entertainment industry six months to clean up its
act before creating new legislation against violent
entertainment. Peter Moore, President of Sega of
America, voluntarily went before the United States
Senate Commerce Committee as a top executive in one of
the accused companies as well as a father of three.
Below is his testimony in full. Besides this
testimony, Daily Radar will run an interview with the
man himself tomorrow in our continuing coverage of an
issue that could affect every gamer in America more
than they realize.
Moore Speaks
Good morning Mr. Chairman and
members of the Committee. My name is Peter Moore,
President and Chief Operating Officer of Sega of
America. I am very glad to have volunteered to be here
today as we work together to address the concerns of
the public and the consumer market. I see these as two
distinct groups comprised of the same people, made
different only by the gap in perceptions of government
and private industry. So, I am pleased to offer the
experiences of Sega and to listen to your concerns so
that the interests of the consumer market and public
are both addressed, and the gap in perceptions is
narrowed.
Further, I am glad to be here as the
parent of three young children: the oldest, Tara, is
17-years-old; my 14-year-old son Tyler is an avid
gamer, and his younger sister, Tony Marie, is
8-years-old. The issues the Committee is addressing
today are issues that, like most parents, my wife and
I must address everyday as we decide
channel-by-channel, film-by-film and game-by-game how
we want our children spending their entertainment
time. I'm sure you will agree with me that parental
responsibility and choice are key to protecting the
interests of the children of our country.
To start, I'd like to offer
background on Sega. Sega is almost 50 years old and
was started by former U.S. Army officers,
manufacturing and distributing pinball machines to the
U.S. troops abroad through the 1960s and 70s. In fact,
the name Sega is created from the words SErvice GAmes.
Sega broke new ground in
entertainment in the 1980s by developing the first
simulation type video games. In 1998, Sega's historic
role in leading video game development was recognized
by the Smithsonian Institution during a an exhibit on
innovation where the world's first 3-dimensional
interactive video game, Virtua Fighter, was on
display.
Continuing our cutting-edge
innovations in home gaming entertainment, Sega sells a
game console with the highest-speed processor on the
market today, the Sega Dreamcast system, which offers
users phenomenal, realistic graphics. We also develop
our own games for use on Dreamcast. Additionally,
third-party publishers also produce games for
Dreamcast.
Our newest service, SegaNet, is an
Internet-based video gaming network that gives gamers
the opportunity to play their Dreamcasts and PCs
against their friends through the Internet. It was
kicked off only last week, with gamers playing
football against rivals, across the country. Another
first for the entertainment industry.
For the industry overall, the U.S.
market is by far the world leader, earning over 7
billion dollars last year in software and console
sales. Sega of America is one of the top software
publishers and advertisers in this industry.
Because Sega has historically been
at the vanguard of video game innovation, we are
pleased to begin a dialogue with you in the last few
days of the 106th Congress.
Just as you feel a responsibility to
the people who elected you, we at Sega also feel a
responsibility to the people who spent almost 7
billion dollars last year on video games. Because many
of your constituents are our customers, you and I have
a mutual interest in building a more complete
understanding of this community.
I speak of my responsibility as a
parent and of Sega's responsibility as a corporation
because, for me as President of the company, the two
are intertwined. Just as I am responsible for choosing
the entertainment for my children, I feel strongly
that it is Sega's responsibility to educate parents so
they can make informed decisions. I know this
first-hand.
Toward fulfilling that
responsibility, Sega in 1993 introduced a voluntary
rating system for our products which was the
forerunner of the Entertainment Software Rating Board,
or E.S.R.B., the independent organization that
develops the age-range and content rating system for
video games.
Building upon the E.S.R.B.'s
commitment to protecting the consumer, within the past
year have unveiled the Advertising Review Council,
which sets guidelines for all video game advertising
content. The A.R.C.'s mandate is to ensure that
industry ads are appropriate, responsible, truthful
and accurate and marketed appropriately to the correct
audiences.
Over the past few months, Sega has
worked closely with the Federal Trade Commission to
share information on our products and marketing
programs. We are glad to have participated in this
endeavor as it offers mutual opportunities for both my
company and the FTC. First, it allows Sega an
opportunity to further educate the Commission on the
consumer market that we serve as well as our business
practices within that market. Concurrently, it allows
us the opportunity to hear the concerns that the
Commission carries in its effort to address questions
from the public.
The results of this dialogue and
information sharing, as outlined in the FTC's report
released Monday, show that over the past year, the
electronic gaming industry's self-imposed regulations
have had great success. This effort includes industry
members following careful age- and content-rating
procedures implemented by the E.S.R.B., carefully and
clearly labeling our products, not in code, but in
plain English. These efforts are positively impacting
parental education about the rating system.
The FTC's survey this year showed
that 54% of parents are at least slightly familiar
with the system believe it to be excellent or good.
That's a substantial increase in only one year, when
from a 1999 FTC survey, 20% of parents thought the
rating system helpful. That success is due directly to
our hard work and efforts to serve and educate our
consumers.
Although many marketing plans for
M-rated games in the report stated primary or
secondary audiences as being 12 to17 year olds, that
is simply a practice that we do not condone. I assure
you that we are working to ensure that such instances
do not happen in the future.
I do feel, however, as I read the
section of the FTC report that addresses marketing,
that their expectations and criticisms are based on
unrealistic assumptions. For example, on page 47's
analysis of the industry's print advertising in gaming
publications, I will find it extremely difficult to
justify banning M-rated game titles from a magazine
that has over half of its readership aged 17 or older.
It is neither practical nor fair to imply that we
should bypass advertising media targeted to the gaming
enthusiast simply because of the possibility of
spillage to a younger demographic.
I also take issue with the portion
of the report addressing television advertising,
saying that simply because we advertise during such
widely popular shows as, The Simpsons, The X-Files,
and Baywatch, that our plans are -- and I quote this
from the report "strongly suggesting that
children under 17 were being targeted."
Unfortunately this information in the report is
misleading.
For example, according to the
Nielsen ratings for the 2000 television season, m any
popular programs have audiences that are significantly
over 18-years-old: The Simpsons has 71% over-18;
Malcolm in the Middle at 70% over-18; Friends in cable
syndication has over 79% 18-years or above.
This type of speculation is
unconscionable in a document that has all the
appearance of a scientific survey. These TV shows have
wide, mainstream appeal, and as such, they inevitably
capture some younger and older consumers than the
shows' core audiences.
In any industry that markets its
products, there's always the challenge to not only
reach your target audience, but also to break through
the clutter of messages that bombard people everyday.
Even more difficult is to silo messages to only one
demographic group without having any unintended
spillage into other demographic groups.
Having said that, I also want you to
know that we are thoughtful and sensitive to the fact
that children may be unintentionally receiving
messages meant for an older audience. In recognition
of such a situation, Sega and the IDSA both enjoy
close relations with our retail partners and
continually work with them to develop new programs to
educate consumers about the age and content
suitability of video games.
Sega, the I.D.S.A., E.S.R.B. and
retailers are all working together in a very tight,
very well thought-out and very well-managed system. I
troubled by this report, and similar innuendo in
political stump speeches, that overlooks our positive
efforts and instead generalizes that the industry
routinely and overtly markets to audiences younger
than designated by E.S.R.B. ratings. Such sweeping
generalizations over-simplify and sensationalize the
issue, and unfairly indict responsible companies such
as Sega for the isolated mistakes of others.
Aside from my position at Sega, as a
father of three young children, I am angered that,
based on a handful of instances, government officials
point an accusing finger at an entire industry as the
cause of all youth violence. Any responsible parent
knows that there are a multitude of factors involved
in childhood development. The more time our government
spends scape-goating one of the thousands of
impressions made everyday on children, the less time
is spent on real, sustainable solutions.
Mr. Chairman, Members of the
Committee, I know we all want the same goal: we want
every child and every family to be informed and
involved in daily decisions. We in the electronic
gaming industry have proven ourselves committed to
that goal and we intend to push further. We want to
work with you. We want you to understand our business
practices, based on fact, not assumptions. We want to
learn of your concerns and thoughts. We are an
industry that is served by some of the most artistic
and creative people ever, but we know that no one
corners the market on creativity. We are open to
suggestions, but suggestions based on reality, not
speculation.
I want to thank you for this
opportunity, to offer our significant experience as we
work together to address concerns of the public we
both serve.
Thank you.
TOP
