New York Legislators Reach Agreement On Game Bill

According to a report on website GamePolitics, the New York Senate and Assembly have reached an agreement on new video game legislation aimed to keep violent and otherwise inappropriate games out of the hands of minors. The agreement was reached yesterday evening, however the bill was unable to be passed before the available time to do so had elapsed. According to the report, legislators expect to revisit and formerly pass the bill when they reconvene in July, after which it would go to Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer, and will go into effect 120 days after being signed. The bill, which was first proposed in May, is designed to make the sale or rental of games with mature themes to minors a felony, punishable with time in jail. In addition, the proposal also calls for an advisory council to review the effectiveness of the Entertainment Software Rating Board. The bill would also demand that all game consoles sold as of September 1, 2009 would include built-in parental controls, a feature already included within the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii. However, as originally noted, the bill does not specifically call out handheld consoles or PCs, so it remains unclear if these too are to be grouped beneath the governance of this legislation.