As the video game industry gears up to release a new generation of consoles that allow even sharper graphics and more realistic action, lawmakers nationwide are considering bans on the sale or rental of violent titles to minors.
In California, for instance, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has until midnight Thursday to act on a bill that would ban the sale to minors of games that "depict serious injury to human beings in a manner that is especially heinous, atrocious or cruel."
That worries the $25-billion global game industry, which fears that its wares would be the only form of entertainment other than pornography subject to such heavy regulation.
But it's welcome news to Mary Gilbertson, who yanked "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" from her 16-year-old son once she realized the game was about more than fast cars.
Her son argued that it was just a game, but "it still disturbed me that he found it entertaining," the Minnesota preschool teacher said of the title, which allows players to shoot cops, run over pedestrians and have sex with prostitutes, then beat them senseless.
In the weeks since publisher Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. acknowledged that some versions of "San Andreas" also included a hidden sex scene, the game has renewed and intensified longtime concerns over excessive sex and violence in video games.
The debate over violence in one of the fastest-growing segments of the entertainment industry ebbs and flows. There's disagreement over whether virtual violence breeds real violence, but the video game industry has for years churned out increasingly graphic titles that rile its critics.
"The topic tends to resurface every few years," said American McGee, a veteran game developer. "Some of it has to do with the improvements in game graphics. People who never play video games see how visceral it is, and they freak out."
In addition to the California bill, Michigan last month passed a similar law, set to take effect Dec. 1, to ban the sale of "ultra-violent explicit video games" to minors under 17. And an Illinois law, set to take effect Jan. 1, prohibits the sale or rental of violent or sexually explicit games to minors.
The Entertainment Software Assn. has filed suit in Michigan and Illinois seeking to block the laws, contending that they amount to censorship.
