Is the Government on PEGI’s side?

Is the industry’s hunch that Government is on its side jumping the gun? We’ll have to wait and see (and according to the DCMS we won’t have to wait long).

But it’s not like ELSPA’s positive attitude is without merit. Unless it was just a spectacular coincidence that, when speaking at a committee debate in Westminster last week, the DCMS’s Barbara Follett echoed, almost word for word, ELSPA’s own material when she said we need mechanisms that are robust and strong, and also future-proof”.

A trustworthy and uniform system with a clear set of systems that is absolutely clear to someone when they look at it” which has got to work for the games industry and support retailers”, certainly sounds like the PEGI this industry has been describing.

ELSPA’s Michael Rawlinson – who has driven much of this activity – has done a lot of work to unite the industry and put together a coherent argument. Regardless of the Government’s eventual decision, you won’t be able to argue that ELPSA didn’t go after this one 100 per cent.

BREWING UP A STORM
Alright, so you might think the MCV Awards are way off. Five months and all that.

But there is method in our madness. We plug the event this early for a few reasons.

One is that it always sells out we can never accommodate everyone who wants to buy a table.

So the sooner we give people the chance to book, the less they can moan at us.
Also, we like to give everyone decent notice regarding the lobbying period, which will start when we announce the 2009 categories (in about two weeks) and closes in February.

By lobbying, you can make sure MCV considers fully whether or not you should be a Finalist.

After we’ve chosen the Finalists, it’s all down to those 100 named judges from all corners of the business.

But, you’re right, there won’t be any shortage of further reminders…

EA SPORTS’ LATEST SIGNING
And congratulations to Electronic Arts for snaffling John Rosenblatt as its new EA Sports senior marketing director for Europe.

Coincidentally, we argued long and hard as to where he should fit in our ‘Fantasy Publisher’ (see page 17), so it’s little wonder that EA has swooped to sign the Eidos and Ubisoft vet to lead the marketing charge for big hitters like FIFA.