IEMA Updates PC Packaging, Merges with VSDA

Last month, the Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association and the Video Software Dealers Association announced that the two industry trade organizations would be merging. That has taken effect with the resulting Entertainment Merchants Association, which supports over 1,000 retail companies comprising 20,000 outlets in North America which deal in PC games, console games, and DVDs. VSDA president Bo Anderson will head up the new EMA, and IEMA founder and president Hal Halpin will be instrumental in the organization's launch. Last week, the IEMA also announced a new updated packaging standard for PC game retail boxes. It removes the "SOFTWARE" from the current "PC CD-ROM SOFTWARE" label, but more importantly standardizes its placement on the box. The appropriate logo, indicating whether the game is on CD or DVD as well as whether it is an online game, is now placed in the upper right of the box, over a black and gray pinstriped bar that spans the top 3/4" of the packaging. I spoke a bit to IEMA's Hal Halpin about the changes and the motivations behind them. PC games at retail have faced tough times for the past several years. "Back in 1999 most of our members were giving serious thought to dropping the [PC] line in favor of expanded console space," recalled Halpin, "and since retail square footage is so expensive we had to come up with a solution." Thus the genesis of the current mini-box standard for PC games, which allowed retailers more flexibility in PC game storage and "gave PC gaming a much-needed lifeline." Then came the familiar aforementioned logos. "The icon came as a result of consumer confusion and there being no one consistent platform identification mark, again as a fact of not being 'owned' by anyone," said Halpin. To further remedy that situation, the new bar keeps PC games consistant at a glance on store shelves, similar to the platform identification standard across all console games. "It truly was a cumulative and collaborative process in that a lot of people from various companies hand hands involved," he said. Halpin also expects many PC game manufacturers to switch from cardboard boxes to plastic cases, though that is not an IEMA initiative. Microsoft has been quite vocal recently about its self-professed failure to serve the PC gaming market in the last several years. Microsoft's Peter Moore notoriously remarked, "We have neglected the PC business." To atone for that negligence, Microsoft has demonstrated a renewed focus on attending to the gaming platform that nobody really owns--but if somebody has to, it's Microsoft. The "Games for Windows" line has taken on more prominence in Microsoft press events and showcases, the upcoming Windows Vista has a bevy of built in systems to make installing and managing PC games easier, and a recent conversation I had at E3 with a company representative suggested that Microsoft hopes to eventually start dealing with retailers to clean up their PC sections from the admittedly shameful state many currently hold. "We applaud Microsoft for wanting to focus more of their marketing efforts on supporting the PC platform," Halpin said. "It's a difficult situation, as unlike console products where each manufacturer effectively owns the platform, with computer games that is not the situation." While the two organizations do not currently appear to be working together on the matter in any significant capacity, dealings will be inevitable if Microsoft indeed directly approaches the retail space in its efforts to promote PC gaming.