ESA, ESRB Execs Paid Like Wall Street Bankers?

[Logan Frederick]

ESA, ESRB Execs Paid Like Wall Street Bankers?

Managing a videogame industry association provides some pretty perks, and I'm not talking about free arcade cabinets.

Two of gaming's leading associations, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) and Entertainment Software Association (ESA), provide the industry with great services: hosting conventions such as E3 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/conferences/e3_2008/5057-E3-2008-ESAs-President-and-the-Age-of-Acceptance], providing parents with game ratings to understand content, and political lobbying for favorable business conditions [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/84158-ESA-PAC-Starts-Slowly-with-Few-Funds]. These groups are funded by membership fees [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/op-ed/4964-A-Crisis-of-Confidence] to the participating game companies in exchange for political exposure and spots on convention floors.

For groups that are largely based on personal relationships and labor, it's reasonable to expect a large amount of corporate investments to go toward employee payrolls. Incredibly, an IRS report filed by both institutions revealed some impressive paydays for the leaders of ESA and ESRB.

GamePolitics [http://www.gamepolitics.com/2009/02/27/nice-work-if-you-can-get-it-esa-esrb-heads-make-big-bucks] revealed the following executive earnings:
[ul]
[li]Former ESA President Doug Lowenstein earned $744,344 and $96,616 in benefits between April 1, 2006 and March 31, 2007.[/li]
[li]Current ESA President Mike Gallagher was paid $789,929 with $19,015 during the April 1, 2007 and March 31, 2008 fiscal year.[/li]
[li]ESRB President Patricia Vance raked in $535,397 over the same time period.[/li]
[/ul]

It's hard to judge the appropriateness of their pay without working their jobs and managing organizations of such size and importance. What can be noted is that, in an economy where hundreds of thousands are being laid off, even within gaming, those numbers are almost big enough to feed a small development staff for a year. Data isn't available to check whether their pay has dropped in 2008 and 2009 to match ongoing macroeconomic issues. How fair are these compensation numbers?

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[Cousin_IT]

industry lobbyists & self perpetuating consultant groups in feathering their own nests shocker.

 

[scotth266]

I'm not terribly suprised: big jobs attract big money. Mostly in the form of big payoffs, but whatever.

 

[Echolocating]

It's nice that they can afford to pay themselves that much. It must be hard work golfing and making sure your employees put the right rating on a game. But hey, if the members want to keep paying them to pay themselves, then by all means.

When the company I used to work for became more successful, the higher-ups slowly stopped working, raised their salaries and hired more managers to the work for them. I didn't blame them though. They built the company up so they wouldn't have to work anymore.

The more you get paid, the less you typically do. It's the American dream, man. It's just funny to watch those President-types wander around the office pretending to look busy, is all. ;-)

 

[Skizle]

thats way to much money for the education and skill level required for that kind of job. anybody with common sense can determine what is and isn't for kids.

 

[Extravaganza]

Fuck that i don't think the ESRB does a good job at all
Relate COD5 with Gears of war 2 try and tell me that those 2 games should be in the same catagory of Rating (M)
COD5 rarely has blood
Gears of war has blood on the map before the game starts.. Way to go

- Pissed

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[Ancientgamer]

If they have the ambition and skill to get that high up the ladder, then they deserve the money they're entitled too.

 

[Pigeon_Grenade]

Lobbyists have always been paid alot to do these sort of things

 

[Mr.Pandah]

thats way to much money for the education and skill level required for that kind of job. anybody with common sense can determine what is and isn't for kids.

Err...I don't think they're the ones that are rating the games buddy. They're managing that business...

 

[edgeofblade]

I really hesitate to pass judgment on these executives. Sometimes, it would be great to walk a mile in their shoes, but you would probably realize what parts of themselves they give up to run a successful organization. So, BASE compensation is usually justifiable. It's those damned golden parachutes I won't suffer. You deserve jack shit for running your company into the ground. If we get paid for performance, the same should go for the execs.

 

[HobbesMkii]

You know, paid like Wall Street Bankers makes sense. Because they ain't paid like Wall Street Execs, just rank and file. I actually thought "that's all?" I mean, we know that when games are good, they make more money than movies, and most of that is pure profit. So, frankly, it's surprising to me that the people who are in charge of making sure the industry runs smoothly and not get crushed by the sporadic waves of public opinion make less than $1 million a year. Yes, it's still enough to make them so far towards "upper class" as to be in a ridiculously high percentile of earners in the US. But hey, they could be making more, except they catch flak from the industry every time they screw up and no one cares/notices their successes.