Liberal-flavored site Burnt Orange Report sheds some light on a Texas bill sponsored by both Democrats and Republicans in the House that gives law enforcement in the state broad powers to look at private Internet data without much justification.

The bill was sponsored by Texas Republican Reps. John Frullo, Allen Fletcher, and John Carona; and Democratic Rep. Senfronia Thompson. House Bill 2268 is described as follows:

A former executive from GameStop's Texas division has been sentenced to 51 months in prison for embezzling $1.7 million from the company by setting up a shell company, according to an announcement by the U.S. Attorney's Office. Frank Christopher Olivera, the now former Vice President of corporate communications and public affairs at GameStop Texas was convicted this week.

According to this GameSpot report, the organizers of the Penny Arcade Expo may have their sights set on a third location for the popular fan-based gaming event: the great state of Texas. Speaking during the Penny Arcade Panel at Comic-Con this weekend, Penny Arcade co-founder Mike Krahulik responded to a fan question about the possibility of a PAX event in the Austin Texas area by saying that organizers are "aggressively exploring a third PAX very near you."

Update: Al Lowe issued the following statement, noting that he will not sure Wisecrack Games and that he did in fact give the company permission to use his name:

The Texas family court judge who was shown whipping his teenage daughter in a YouTube video has been suspended by the Texas Supreme Court. The seven and a half minute video was from a 2004 incident. It showed Judge William Adams viciously beating his daughter with a belt because she downloaded illegal music and games from the Internet. In rendering its decision, the court did not detail the reason for the order of suspension that was made public Tuesday.

According to a Re/Max listing for the Austin, Texas area, Richard Garriott (you know, the guy that created Ultima and Ultima Online) is selling his home, "Britannia Manor II," for the low, low price of $4.1 million. From the listing:

An amusing post on the Huffington Post from senior political reporter Amanda Terkel posits that Republican presidential candidate and former Godfather Pizza CEO Herman Cain's 9.9.9 tax plan draws was inspired by a video game. According to HuffPo, Cain's plan is identical to the default settings in SimCity 4.

GDC Online organizers announced two programs that will grant free Expo Passes to video game and tech industry locals (to Austin and the state where the event takes place next month) and qualifying students. The new program is part of the event's outreach to local talent including students and working professionals.

A Texas appeals court has reversed sanctions against an attorney who was accused and found guilty of accusing opposing counsel of suborning perjury in a lower court ruling. The case is of particular interest only because it involves attorneys for MumboJumbo and PopCap Games International. Attorney Oscar Rey Rodriguez, a partner with the Dallas office of Fulbright & Jaworski, represented PopCap Games International in a contract dispute with MumboJumbo.

Texas wants more video game companies creating jobs in the state, so in an effort to make the state a more enticing location, the Texas Film Commission announced plans to increase incentives for the gaming industry to a level equivalent to what is currently given to film and television projects. Under the new rules, video game companies will be able to apply for grants that will give back up to 15 percent "of eligible in-state spending paid to Texas residents." This is a five percent increase over previous incentives.

On Monday Texas Governor (and presumed future presidential candidate) Rick Perry spoke at a press conference at EA’s BioWare Austin campus. The Governor, along with top executives of Electronic Arts confirmed that the company plans to expand operations in Austin - and in the process - adding 300 future jobs in the area. EA plans to expand its EA Sports division in the region and will hire 150 full-time positions, along with an additional 150 "contract workers."

During the official announcement Monday, Gov. Rick Perry said that Texas is "the perfect place" for video game development to thrive.

"'If it’s in the game, it’s in the game,' and right now Texas is where the game is being played," Perry told the press in attendance. "Much like the video gaming industry, our state is built on the foundation of competition."

A Saudi national who was arrested for plotting to "blow up" former President George W. Bush's Texas home and other targets in America has been connected ever so slightly to violent video games - particularly the Resident Evil series from Capcom. The 20-year-old chemical engineering student at Lubbock's South Plains College, described by authorities as a "jihadist" plead not guilty to charges last Wednesday in a Texas federal court. The charge was attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. According to an affidavit in the Northern District of Texas, Aldawarsi, who was came to the US in 2008 on a student visa, had allegedly researched how to make a chemical-based, improvised explosive device (IED) online.

The New York Post reports that enjoyed watching game videos from five titles in the Resident Evil series on YouTube - information the paper found while sifting through his blog.

Community leaders in city of Ciudad Juarez and the El Paso County Sheriff's Office line up to complain about Ubisoft and Techland's latest game in the Call of Juarez series. The new game, Call of Juarez: The Cartel, is set in the present day, which has put it on the radar of people that are dealing with real-world violence from Mexican drug cartels.

Community leaders in Ciudad Juarez, say that Ubisoft’s new game glorifies the violent lifestyle of drug cartels and being "a hit man."

"Lots of kids say they want to be a hitman, because they are the ones that get away with everything," youth worker Laurencio Barraza told Reuters.

That city, according to Reuters, averaged eight murders a day last year and - at the start of this year - at least 40 residents from El Paso have been murdered while visiting. Barraza works for the  Independent Popular Organization, which tries to keep the youth of the city out of the violent drug cartels.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has been named the keynote speaker for Texas Game On! 2011. Her keynote will address the importance of game-based education. Specifically she will talk about iCivics, a game-based learning platform designed to teach students about the importance of playing an active role in our democracy.

Warren Spector of Junction Point (and the man behind the original Deus Ex and the recent Disney game Epic Mickey) will also speak at the event.

Other sessions scheduled for Game On! Texas 2011 include the panel "Texas Higher Education Game Development Education," and a video game design workshop for amateur developers.

Game On! Texas 2011 takes place April 12 (8:00 AM - 7:00 PM) at the AMD Lone Star Campus in Austin, Texas. Tickets cost $40 per person. For more information check out the event's web site.

Two different teams from The University of Texas at Dallas have submitted entries into the first annual National STEM Video Game Challenge. The two teams are comprised of Arts and Technology (ATEC) and Computer Science students at the university. The students are developing games that meet the criteria of the National STEM Video Game Challenge: to motivate America's youth to learn more about science, technology, engineering, and math.

Both teams entered into the Collegiate Prize division, which gives out awards of $25,000 to the top undergraduate or graduate game submission geared toward young children (grades pre-K through 4).

A new report from the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts (an analysis of Texas economic development Initiatives) shows that the video game industry has created well over a thousand jobs in the last two years. This is due mostly to the state's Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program, which offers incentives to the film, television, commercial, and video game industries.

The report found that the state’s incentive program (enacted in 2007 and expanded in 2009) contributed to the computer and video game industry’s growth in Texas by helping to create an estimated 1,700 jobs between April 2009 and August 2010. The incentive program provides grants for "qualifying productions" including movies, television shows, commercials, and computer and video games that create jobs for Texas residents. Other states have followed the state's initiatives with similar programs including Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and North Carolina.

A crime spree involving San Antonio, Texas GameStops continues, according to police. In less than a week three GameStop stores have been robbed in the city. The latest robbery took place at the GameStop store on Bandera Road and Mainland on the city's northwest side 9:30 p.m. Tuesday. Two suspects tied up the store's employees with duct tape and put them in the restroom. Police say the thieves escaped with an undetermined amount of cash.

On Tuesday morning, burglars broke into a GameStop in the 600 block of Northwest Loop 410. Thieves pried open the doors, then broke into several drawers, taking an unknown number of games. On Monday afternoon, police say a man walked into the Game Stop in the 6000 block of Northwest Loop 410 claiming he was armed with a gun and knife. He got away with several games.

Police who are investigating all three cases say that they do not believe the robberies are connected.

Upon visiting a local sports bar, a San Antonio man made a new friend and invited him home to play videogames. Unfortunately the man’s new friend, a “self-proclaimed” mixed martial arts fighter, allegedly beat up the friendly gamer and robbed him.

Patrick Lockhart (pictured) was eventually arrested after his victim picked him out of a lineup. According to WOAI.com, the injured party was purportedly attacked, and knocked out, once the pair entered his home.

The victim suffered a broken jaw and black eye, in addition to having $2,000 in cash and his television stolen.

Lockhart was charged with aggravated robbery.

The potential moral to the story? It’s probably safer to play games on PSN or XBL rather than in person with strangers.

A Baylor University study examining the relationship between violent videogames and aggression is currently underway, but any hopes that positive results for the game industry might emerge are tempered by the study’s lead already proclaiming that, “There’s a definite link between media violence and aggression.”

Dr. Daniel Shafer, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies, wants to find out which games are most likely to cause aggression in players as well as what types of people are most susceptible to becoming  “aggressive and hostile” from playing videogames.

Another angle the study will examine is how multiplayer gaming impacts people. As Dr. Shafer stated, “We wanted to see if competition increased hostility more.”

The doctor would also like to eventually perform another study of online gamers, one that would determine if interactions between players are different online versus playing against other gamers in-person, a question which Baylor Gaming Society Founder Forrest Harington (and anyone who has ever plugged in an Xbox Live headset), already seemed to know the answer to.

Xbox Live chatter between a Canadian and a Texan turned serious when the latter gamer disclosed plans to shoot up his high school.

The Texas gamer began by detailing his troubles in school to a Port Alberni, British Columbia Xbox Live opponent, which was normal enough, but eventually the Texas gamer spilled details on plans for attacking his school, including rattling off the names of fellow students he was going to target.

The talk alarmed the B.C. gamer enough that he contacted local Royal Canadian Mounted Police personnel, who started a cyber investigation. The RCMP contacted Microsoft and were eventually directed to a teenage suspect in San Antonio, Texas, who was arrested and is facing untold charges.
 
Port Alberni RCMP Staff Sgt. Lee Omilusik commented on the case:

This incident demonstrates the power of the electronic world and how different enforcement agencies can quickly work together to protect the citizens they serve, regardless of obstacles such as international barriers

The arrested boy was 16-years old and a student at John Marshall High School. The school issued a short message (PDF) to parents indicating that the boy would be removed from school “indefinitely.”

Local ABC station KSAT indicated that the gamers were playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Thanks Andrew and whoever posted about it in the Shoutbox!

Left Behind Games, which last month announced a pilot release of its Christian-themed games in 100 Texas Wal-Mart stores, reports brisk sales of their offerings in the Lone Star state.

Stating in a bit of PR that the experiment is “progressing beyond the company’s original expectations,” a company representative claimed that about 25% of their inventory has been sold in the two weeks since the pilot started, which is operating in Houston and Dallas area stores.

CEO Try Lyndon said:

At the rate Wal-Mart inventory is moving, they will be out of games before Christmas, unless they reorder. With seven weeks remaining, and accelerated sales expected as we near the holidays, we believe test results will be favorable leading to a broader national market for Christian based PC games.

In an effort to boost sales, Left Behind Games is sending mailers to areas surrounding Wal-Mart stores that stock their games, offering to send a second free game to anyone purchasing a Left Behind title from the world’s largest retailer.

The reworking of a House Bill aimed at providing incentives to attract film, television and videogame creators to Texas has resulted in a boon for videogame developers.

HB 1634 was originally passed in 2007, offering a $22.0 million pool to pull from in order to offer grants worth 5% of a project’s budget. Unfortunately, as The Austin Chronicle reports, the bill paled in comparison to the offering of other states because of tight terms and high budgetary requirements.

HB 873 was passed in April of this year, and while it featured the same name—The Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program—it featured loosened terms and leeway for rules to be reworked on the fly, already resulting in an increase in spending in the state.

While film spending within the state in the wake of the shift from HB 634 to HB 873 stagnated, videogame spending increased. The paper reports on the growth in the game sector:

Last year under HB 1634, there were 33 qualifying applicants statewide, spending $58 million and getting $2 million in grants. Under HB 873, there have already been 19 applicants, investing a total of $62 million and receiving nearly $4 million from the state.

Austin’s share of the $62.0 million dollar pie so far? $43.0 million, causing Tony Schum, Director of Economic Development for the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce to state:

All the right mixture of elements are here for us to promote gaming, and these incentives are really an accelerator.

Full details of the The Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program can be found here.

Left Behind Games Inc., a publisher of Christian-themed videogames, has secured a pilot release of its titles in 100 Wal-Mart stores in the Houston and Dallas areas.

Three games will be sold as part of a test to determine the viability of selling the titles in additional Wal-Mart locations. Left Behind Games, also known as Inspired Media Entertainment, believes that Texas is ripe for its offerings, noting that there are over 23,000 churches in Texas, with over 5.0 million Evangelical Protestants and more than 1.7 million Mainline Protestants.

CEO Troy Lyndon has high hopes for the Christian game market:

The US market for Christian video games could reach $648 Million within the next five years based upon just 3% of video game sales being in the Christian segment.

As everyone knows, the economy is pretty bad. There are signs it is getting better, but none of the 50 states have been immune, according to Forbes magazine. To that end, it released its yearly list of the states with the best business climate for 2009. Virginia tops the list at number 1.

Two states with a large video game foundation made the top 10. Washington came in at number 2, bolstered by the Microsoft behemoth. Texas came in at number 8, no doubt in part to the growing video game development community in Austin and the vicinity. California, home to many of the big video game publishers and developers, rose two spots from numer 40 last year to number 38.

Forbes detailed how it determined the rankings:

Our Best States ranking measures six vital categories for businesses: costs, labor supply, regulatory environment, current economic climate, growth prospects and quality of life. We factor in 33 different points of data to determine the ranks in the six main areas. Business costs, which include labor, energy and taxes are weighted the most heavily. We relied on nine different data providers. Moody's Economy.com is the most-utilized resource.

Many of the top states showed a more educated workforce, the magazine said.

For those who have trouble with the written word, Forbes also included a look at their list in pictures. If you want to digest all the data at once, then you can look at the handy table provided.

By all accounts, the Independence Day debate between Jack Thompson and gamer/lawyer Mark Methenitis was a froth-free success. Thompson, who can be a charmer when he cares to, appears to have impressed the SGC09 audience with a respectful demeanor and self-effacing humor.

Of course, expo attendees sampled but a small slice of the disbarred attorney's act. Naturally, he didn't compare any of them to Saddam Hussein and didn't report them to various law enforcement agencies. Tactfully, Thompson also avoided dredging up any of the various negative generalizations he has made about gamers over the years, such as our personal favorite, "Nobody shoots anybody in the face unless you're a hit man or a video gamer."

We are still hoping to see full-length video of the debate and a subsequent Q&A session, but have been tracking some of the early reactions by attendees. Destructoid's Jim Sterling live-blogged the debate:

After seeing JT's unvetted Q&A earlier, I don't think this'll be the trainwreck people are expecting. Thompson was level-headed and well-behaved earlier...

JT... calls GamePolitics his favorite videogame site. [GP: LOL]

"We are getting to the point where we will understand that adult-rated games are just as harmful as seeing two naked people have intercourse"... "I'm the pro liberty, pro personal choice guy here..."

[JT said] that he got disbarred because he went on 60 Minutes but he'd do it all again.

The normally cynical Sterling, who appears to have sipped liberally from Thompson's Kool Aid, was even more complimentary toward the disbarred attorney in his coverage of the SGC09 Q&A session:

I think Jack Thompson did an amazing job yesterday. I don't agree with all his views, and I certainly disagree with the way he's put them across over the years. I think everyone who watched him yesterday will agree, however, that if he continues the rest of his crusade in the polite and intelligent manner with which he carried himself at SGC, he really wouldn't be such a bad guy to have around.

Overly Positive offers its impressions of the debate:

It seems the audience left the presentation and Q&A with at least a small amount of respect for Jack Thompson, not just for making his points in a rational manner, but for showing up at all. It seems that even if this is to some cynics a desperate grab for relevance, that Thompson honestly believes that presenting his side of the video games violence debate is worthwhile.

SCG09 attendee Sean Hinz also live-blogged the debate.

GP: I caught Thompson's debate performance at VGXPO 07. He is, as described by various SGC09 attendees, an engaging speaker. If he behaved that way all of the time he would almost certainly still have his law license and might still be an effective advocate for his cause.

UPDATE: More in the vein of the Miami Jack we remember here at GP, Thompson e-mailed his reaction to our coverage:

Dennis, pay attention, you might learn something:
 
1.  The comment about GP being my favorite game site was a joke, and everyone knew it.  That's why the laughter.  Not a lot of folks there care for you or GP.  
 
2.  I got about a 60-second standing ovation after the Q & A.  Did you talk to Craig, who is the head of ScrewAttack, about his impression of me? [GP: we did send Craig an e-mail inquiry this morning; no response so far]
 
3.  I don't need advice from you about how to be effective. I'm the guy making a difference not you, and it bugs the Hell out of you.

The on-again, off-again July 4th debate between disbarred Miami attorney Jack Thompson and gamer/attorney Mark Methenitis is apparently back on.

The debate, planned for this weekend's SGC09 in Dallas, went off the rails rather suddenly yesterday morning when Thompson complained to event host Screw Attack (and cc'd GamePolitics) that:

• he objected to a one- or two-line introduction ("I have never been introduced with 1 or 2 sentences.  Nobody can be introduced in that fashion...")
• he objected to a user-created parody video posted (and since removed) on the Screw Attack site; Thompson may have believed the video, "Questions Not to Ask Jack Thompson" at SGC," was official Screw Attack content

After posting a story detailing Thompson's assertion that he was canceling his appearance, GamePolitics rather unexpectedly found itself in the middle of a day-long flurry of e-mails between Screw Attack personnel and Thompson. Event organizers were clearly seeking to assuage Thompson's concerns and salvage the debate. By late Tuesday afternoon, it appeared that Thompson, who is apparently under contract and being paid $2,000 for his appearance, was softening his position after receiving assurances from Screw Attack Program Director Craig Skistimas.

As recently as this morning, however, Thompson demanded that a post by a Screw Attack user be removed. While it was not taken down, the author, who was also behind the parody video that Thompson found offensive, e-mailed the disbarred attorney a lengthy apology; that seemed to satisfy Thompson.

Next, Thompson e-mailed Skistimas a "proposed text" to be used as his introduction at the debate. The 12-sentence intro mentioned his 2008 lifetime disbarment very briefly, referring to it as "illegal" and blaming the loss of his law license on "lawyers for Take-Two, the makers of the Grand Theft Auto games."

GP asked Skistimas whether the introduction would actually be used at SGC09. Skistimas told us, "I have yet to review his intro but Jack and I will work together to find an intro that fits both his needs and the time format of the debate at SGC."

A conference call between Thompson and the Screw Attack team planned for noon today was canceled when the parties decided in late morning that the debate was back on and Thompson was satisified.

Skistimas also said that the site would release a video tomorrow to reinforce the fact that Thompson will appear at SGC09.

It appears that a much-anticipated Independence Day debate between Jack Thompson and gamer/lawyer Mark Methenitis is off. (GP: however, see updates below)

Back in April Mark Methenitis announced that he would debate Thompson on July 4th at the ScrewAttack Gaming Convention in Dallas. In fact, Methenitis posted a reminder about the debate just yesterday on his excellent Law of the Game blog.

But an angry e-mail received a short time ago from Thompson indicates that he will not appear. The disbarred attorney was apparently upset by an event organizer's request for a two-line bio as well as a parody video (screen shot at left) posted on the Screw Attack website by a user. Here's a just-received e-mail from Thompson to Methenitis:

Mark, the goofs at ScrewAttack have managed to sabotage my debate with you this Saturday... Don't blame me.  I wanted to do  the debate. I would have used the $2000 to help me in bringing down The Florida Bar...

Here's a second e-mail from Thompson to a number of individuals at ScrewAttack:

Yesterday, I get an email... that I either I submit a "1 or 2 sentence" introduction of myself, or I won't be introduced.  I have spoken and debated on more than 200 college campuses, and I have never been introduced with 1 or 2 sentences.  Nobody can be introduced in that fashion...
 
Finally, I went to your site this morning and I have viewed [a since removed] idiotic [video] clip...  It is a gross misrepresentation... you know full well that the reason I wanted to do this event... [is] to debate the issues of violence in video games... 
 
Finally, how many references to me as a "butt" did you think you had to put into your adolescent video?  You even take a swipe at Christians in the video...
 
All you have managed to do, as related above, is make the event an impossibility.  I expected the event to feature some hostiility [sic]. What I did not expect was that the people putting it on would ratchet it up and in doing so create a security problem...

GamePolitics has a request in to Screw Attack for more information and to see whether, from their perspective, the debate and a planned open forum with Thompson are salvageable. Methenitis is hoping that the event will go forward but referred us to Screw Attack for specifics.

GP: If the SGC 09 debate is canceled, it will not the first time that a proposed debate involving Thompson and the video game crowd has ended in bitterness. See our coverage of similar events proposed for PAX 07 and GDC 08. Thompson did, however, complete a debate with game designer Lorne Lanning at VGXPO 07 in Philadelphia.

That said, it's rather difficult to believe that the debate would be lost over the length of an introduction. As for the Screw Attack user-created video, let's just call it ill-advised and unfunny.

UPDATE: Thompson has confirmed to GamePolitics that he is under contract to appear. An e-mail from Thompson to Methenitis, cc'd to GP, indicates that the debate may yet be salvageable.

UPDATE 2: Thompson has forwarded a copy of a conciliatory e-mail from Screw Attack which describes the video in question as user-created content; it has apparently been removed. Thompson, however, continues to make demands of the event organizers:

This thing will start to get back on track if the person in charge... makes a very prominent and public statement at ScrewAttack.com and to the media (yes, that even includes GamePolitics, which is run as if it were Strauss Zelnick's house organ) [GP: LOL] stating that ScrewAttack disavows that video, that ScrewAttack KNOWS that the reason Jack Thompson is taking a day out of his life and away from his family is that he cares about the ISSUES in this debate, and that anybody, ANYBODY, who says or does anything out of line at this event will be escorted from the event immediately...

UPDATE 3: Stop the presses! The debate is not canceled, at least not yet. Thompson and the Screw Attack crew have scheduled a conference call for tomorrow to - hopefully - sort out their issues.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott (R) warns parents about a variety of potential threats which he says video games pose to children in an editorial for the Hill Country Times.

Abbott, GamePolitics readers may recall, sued GamesRadar in 2007 for allegedly failing to adequately protect the privacy and safety of children who frequent the website. Abbott later withdrew the suit after GameRadar's parent company, Future, Inc., agreed to make appropriate changes.

While online game predators are the primary focus of his editorial, Abbott also reminds parents about parental control features built into console systems as well as the use of ESRB ratings. The A.G. previously partnered with the ESRB on a 2007 campaign to raise awareness of the video game industry's content rating system. In today's editorial Abbott writes:

When we were young, our parents warned us not to talk to strangers... Today, children are more likely to frequent a digital playground that can be even more dangerous. For example, many game systems have evolved dramatically and now have many of the same capabilities as home computers. In particular, these games’ online interfaces allow users to interact with each other using text, voice or even video chat. Parents should beware of the potential for child predators to use these systems to prey upon and contact their children...

 

Parents should also consider participating in their children’s game-playing activities. Hand-held gaming devices also pose potential risks to children. Many of these devices have wireless-communication capabilities and are popular among kids who use them to communicate with others who are within range, usually about 30 feet. Child predators may be able to exploit this feature in certain public settings...

Tax breaks and other government incentives for developers are a terrific benefit to the video game industry. But, as GamePolitics has previously reported, in Texas they come with strings attached, allowing the state to withhold funding based on the content of a project.

Those strings have now reared their ugly head, at least for one filmmaker.

The Waco Tribune-Herald reports that Texas Film Commission Director Bob Hudgins has denied funding to the producers of Waco, a film project based on the 1993 shootout and subsequent standoff at the Branch Davidian compound:

Hudgins [said] he made the decision after reviewing the script and talking with journalists and law enforcement people involved in the incident.

Under the provisions of the recently enacted Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program, state financial incentives can’t go to film, video or video game projects that inaccurately depict the state or actual events in the state.

An earlier report suggested that the incentives were blocked due to “opposition from an unnamed state senator.” However, Hudgins denied that, saying that the decision was his.

The producers have suggested they may relocate to neighboring Louisiana, where state incentives have no such content restrictions.

When not making bizarre references to seceding from the United States, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) is  good friend to the video game industry.

The Guv, who delivered last year's E3 keynote in Los Angeles, today signed into law HB 873. The bill increases the amount of state grants available to video game, film and other digital media production companies.

As reported by the San Marcos Daily Record, Perry was enthusiatic about the legislation at the bill signing ceremony:

With this legislation, we are strengthening our state’s investment in a vital industry that not only shows off our state to the rest of the world, but also draws investment and creates jobs for Texans.

ESA CEO Mike Gallagher praised Perry via press release:

I commend Governor Rick Perry and the Texas state legislature for recognizing the contributions that the video game industry already has made in the state, and for acting quickly and decisively to ensure that the industry has the opportunity to reach its full potential. Today, Texas showed its strong willingness to stay competitive with other states that are seeking to attract video game developers and publishers.

KVUE has a video report on the bill signing.