For Immediate Release:=

Video Game Report Card Confirms that Retailers Are Enforcing Ratings

ENCINO, CA (November 29, 2006) ...= The 2006 MediaWise Video and Computer Game Report C= ard released today confirms that the nation's leading retailers are enforcing co= mputer and video game ratings by refusing to sell games rated "Mature" by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) to persons under age 17. The Report Card, produced by the National Institute on Media and the Family (NI= MF), found that children under the age of 17 that NIMF sent into stores to purch= ase "Mature"-rated video games were turned down 68% of the time, the highest turn-down rate ever recorded by NIMF. The Report Card awarded the m= ajor national retail chains, which account for most video game sales, an "A" for their ratings enforcement efforts. The results for major retailers reported in the Report Card are similar to the level of ratings enforcement found by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in its most recent "mystery shop" of computer and video game retailers.

"The Med= iaWise Report Card demonstrates, as the Federal Trade Commission also found earlier this year, that major national retailers that sell computer and video games have successfully implemented aggressive policies to prohibit the sale of 'Mature'-rated games to persons under age 17," noted Bo Andersen, President of the Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA). "We commend these retailers and for their superior performance, which sets the standard= for all game retailers."

Since 2000, the FTC has periodical= ly conducted "mystery shopper" surveys to determine retailers' compliance with the voluntary ratings enforcement policies.

The 2005 FTC mystery shop, released in March 2006, shows that the current turn-down rate= is 65% for the national retail chains. Overall, the FTC found that children it sent into video game stores to buy "Mature"-rated games were turned down 58% of the time. Retailers improved their enforcement of store policies restricting the sale of "Mature"-rated games by 362% - from a 16% to a 58% turn-down rate= - since the FTC's first shopping survey in 2000 and almost doubled the turn-d= own rate since the immediately prior survey in the fall of 2003, when it was 31= %. Likewise, the annual MediaWise Report Cards sho= w an increase in the turn-down rate for children under age 17 attempting to purc= hase "Mature"-rated games, from a 19% turn-down rate in 2000 to 68% to= day.

In addition, retailers educate par= ents about video game ratings through posters, brochures, shelf talkers, kiosks, other in-store signage, and their websites. A recent survey of retailer sig= nage conducted by the ESRB, which covered more than 8,100 retail locations, found that 79% of the stores had signs explaining the computer and video game rat= ing system.

"While the MediaWise survey admittedly uses a much smaller sample - 25 stores, compared to the hundreds surveyed by the FTC and ESRB - and employs a less scientifically rigorous methodology than the other surveys, it does provide a useful yards= tick each year for how computer and video game retailers are continuing to enhan= ce their ratings education and enforcement methods," Andersen noted. &quo= t;Retailers have been targeted with punitive legislation regarding video game sales, wh= ich is based on a lack of understanding of the actual level of ratings enforcem= ent in stores. Hopefully, today's Report Card will help convince legislators th= at efforts to target video game retailers are misplaced."

Andersen reported that retailers a= re committed to assisting parents in making well-informed entertainment choices for their families and preventing children from buying or renting computer = and video games their parents do not want them to have. In June, major retailers unveiled their "Commitment to Parents," under which they have agr= eed to:

* Voluntarily enforce the "Mature" and "Adults Only" ratings of computer and video games;

* Post signage about the ESRB comp= uter and video game ratings and their store policies;

* Include computer and video game ratings in advertising and marketing;

* Train employees (and discipline = as appropriate); and

* Provide consumers with a dispute resolution process for sales and rentals in violation of the store's polici= es.

The Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA) was established in April 2006 through the merger of the V= ideo Software Dealers Association (VSDA) and the Interactive Entertainment Merch= ants Association (IEMA). EMA is the not-for-profit international trade associati= on dedicated to advancing the interests of the $32 billion home entertainment industry. EMA represents more than 1,000 companies throughout the United States, Canada, and other nations. Its members operate more than 20,000 retail outlets in the U.S. th= at sell and/or rent DVDs and computer and console video games. Membership comprises= the full spectrum of retailers (from single-store specialists to multi-line mass merchants), distributors, the home video divisions of major and independent motion picture studios, and other related businesses that constitute and support the home entertainment industry.&n= bsp;

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For more information, please contact:=

Sean Bersell, Vice President, Public Affairs

Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA)

818-385-1500 Ext. 226 or sb= ersell at entmerch.org