Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) is a non-profit organization of video game industry professionals. It organizes the annual Design Innovate Communicate Entertain Summit, better known as D.I.C.E., which includes the presentations of the D.I.C.E. Awards.

Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences
Formation1991; 33 years ago (1991)
FounderAndrew S. Zucker
Headquarters3183 Wilshire Blvd.
Location
Membership
30,000[1] (2020)
President
Meggan Scavio (since 2017)
Websiteinteractive.org

History

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Andrew S. Zucker, an attorney in the entertainment industry, founded the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences in 1991 and served as its first president.[2] AIAS co-promoted numerous events with organizations such as the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the Directors Guild of America, and Women in Film. Their first awards show program, Cybermania '94, which was hosted by Leslie Nielsen and Jonathan Taylor Thomas, was broadcast on TBS in 1994.[3] While a second show was run in 1995 and was the first awards program to be streamed over the Web, it drew far fewer audiences than the first.[3]

Video game industry leaders decided that they wanted to reform AIAS as a non-profit organization for the video game industry. The effort was backed by Peter Main of Nintendo, Tom Kalinske of Sega, and Doug Lowenstein, founder of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), and with funding support from ESA.[3] The AIAS was formally reestablished on November 19, 1996, with Marc Teren as president, soon replaced by game developer Glenn Entis.[3][4] Initially, in 1998, AIAS' role was to handle the awards, originally known as the Interactive Achievement Awards. These awards were nominated and selected by game developers that are members of the organization themselves, mimicking how the Academy Awards are voted for by its members.[3][5]

Around 2000, the ESA pulled out of funding AIAS, leading AIAS members Richard Hilleman and Lorne Lanning to suggest that AIAS create the D.I.C.E. Summit (short for "Design Innovate Communicate Entertain"), a convention centered around the presentation of the awards to providing funding for the organization. The Summit was aimed at industry executives and lead as a means to provide networking between various companies. The D.I.C.E. Summit launched in 2002 in Las Vegas, Nevada and has been run on an annual basis since.[3] In addition to video games, AIAS saw these summits as a way to connect video games to other entertainment industries.[3]

Joseph Olin served as the AIAS president from 2004 to 2010; following his departure, Martin Rae was named president in 2012. Rae opted to implement a number of changes to the Summit, shorting talk times to give more attention to the speakers, and rebranding the awards as the D.I.C.E. Awards for the 2013 summit.[3][6][7] Mike Fischer replaced Rae as president in 2016.[3]

As of 2017, AIAS's mission is "to promote and advance the worldwide interactive entertainment community, recognize outstanding achievements in the interactive arts and sciences, and host an annual awards show, the DICE Awards, to enhance awareness of games as an interactive art form".[3]

D.I.C.E. Summit

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D.I.C.E. Summit
StatusActive
GenreVideo games
VenueAria Resort and Casino
Location(s)Las Vegas, Nevada, US
CountryUnited States
Inaugurated2002; 22 years ago (2002)
Most recentFebruary 15, 2024 (2024-02-15)
Organized byAcademy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

The D.I.C.E. Summit is an annual multi-day gathering of video game executives held in Las Vegas. Established in 2002 by AIAS, the conference is host to the annual Interactive Achievement Awards, which has since been rebranded as the D.I.C.E. Awards. The conference differs from other conferences in the industry in its emphasis on the business and production end of the industry, with a focus on trends and innovations in video game design.[8] The conference specializes in providing a more intimate, orderly venue for select industry leaders to network.[9]

Structure

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In 2007, a keynote speaker was added to open the event, which had traditionally begun with recreation before the introduction of presentations and panels.

Year Speaker Occupation / role
2007 Yair Landau Vice-President of Sony Pictures Entertainment and President of Sony Pictures Digital[10]
2008 Gore Verbinski Film director
2009 Gabe Newell President, Valve
2010 Bobby Kotick CEO of Activision Blizzard
2011 Mike Morhaime CEO & Co-Founder, Blizzard Entertainment
2012 Todd Howard Game Director & Executive Producer, Bethesda Game Studios
2013 Gabe Newell President, Valve
J. J. Abrams Film director
2014 Hilmar Veigar Pétursson CEO, CCP Games
2015 Brandon Beck CEO, Riot Games[11]
2016 Hideo Kojima Game creator/director[12]
Guillermo del Toro Film director[12]
2017 Jeff Kaplan Vice-President, Blizzard Entertainment
2018 Phil Spencer Executive Vice-President of Gaming, Microsoft
2019 Shawn Layden Chairman of SIE Worldwide Studios
2022 Todd Howard Director & Executive Producer, Bethesda Game Studios

Corporate members

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Current list of corporate members (as of April 4, 2023):[13]

Former Corporate Members

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References

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  1. ^ "About Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences".
  2. ^ "Andrew S. Zucker". Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. 1996. Archived from the original on November 7, 1996.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Takahashi, Dean (February 21, 2017). "DICE Awards turn 20: How gaming's Academy Awards have grown". Venture Beat. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
  4. ^ Kaplan, Karen (November 19, 1996). "Organization to Promote, Honor Interactive Arts". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on May 10, 2021. Retrieved August 22, 2023.
  5. ^ "In the Studio". Next Generation. No. 41. Imagine Media. May 1998. p. 24.
  6. ^ "Dice 2013 changes". Joystiq. Joystiq. Archived from the original on October 26, 2012. Retrieved January 16, 2013.
  7. ^ Takahashi, Dean (October 24, 2012). "DICE Summit shakes up its format for game creator talks and renames industry awards". Venture Beat. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
  8. ^ Gamasutra. D.I.C.E. Summit 2007 Live from Las Vegas Archived March 4, 2007, at the Wayback Machine gamasutra.com. Retrieved February 4, 2008.
  9. ^ "Joseph Olin Talks 2007 DICE Summit - Features - Edge Online". archive.is. January 15, 2013. Archived from the original on January 15, 2013.
  10. ^ Feldman, Curt and Tim Surette. (February 8, 2007) D.I.C.E. 07: Event kicks off on a serious note. GameSpot. Retrieved February 4, 2008.
  11. ^ "D.I.C.E. Summit 2015 Keynote Speaker/Panelists Announced". GameFront. January 23, 2015. Retrieved February 9, 2016.
  12. ^ a b "Hideo Kojima and Guillermo Del Toro Confirmed as D.I.C.E. Summit Keynote Speakers". News Channel 10. February 3, 2016. Archived from the original on April 18, 2016. Retrieved February 9, 2016.
  13. ^ "AIAS Corporate Members List". Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Archived from the original on April 4, 2023. Retrieved August 30, 2023.
  14. ^ a b c d "AIAS Corporate Members List". Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Archived from the original on May 29, 2018. Retrieved August 30, 2023.
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h "AIAS Corporate Members List". Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Archived from the original on October 5, 2021. Retrieved August 30, 2023.
  16. ^ a b "AIAS Corporate Members List". Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Archived from the original on April 7, 2015. Retrieved August 30, 2023.
  17. ^ a b c d e f "AIAS Corporate Members List". Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Archived from the original on February 2, 2013. Retrieved August 30, 2023.
  18. ^ a b c d e f g h "AIAS Corporate Members List". Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Archived from the original on February 18, 2014. Retrieved August 30, 2023.
  19. ^ a b "AIAS Corporate Members List". Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Archived from the original on September 19, 2017. Retrieved August 30, 2023.
  20. ^ a b "AIAS Corporate Members List". Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Archived from the original on June 29, 2015. Retrieved August 30, 2023.
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