Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

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.
History
Andrew S. Zucker, an attorney in the entertainment industry, founded the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences in 1991 and served as its first president. 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. 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 as the first.
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. The AIAS was formally reestablished on November 19, 1996, with Marc Teren as president, soon replaced by game developer Glenn Entis. 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 the means by which the Academy Awards are voted by its members.
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 as a means to providing funding for the organization. The Summit was aimed at industry executives and lead developers 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. In addition to video games, AIAS saw these summits as a way to connect video games to other entertainment industries.
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. Mike Fischer replaced Rae as president in 2016.
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".
D.I.C.E. Summit
The D.I.C.E. summit is an annual multi-day gathering of video game executives held in Las Vegas, Nevada. Established in 2002 by AIAS, the conference is host to the annual Entertainment Software Association's Interactive Achievement 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. The conference specializes in providing a more intimate, orderly venue for select industry leaders to network.
Structure
In 2007, a keynote speaker was added to open the event, which had traditionally begun with recreation before the introduction of presentations and panels.
Corporate members
Current list of corporate members (as of April 4, 2023):
Activision Blizzard
Annapurna Interactive
Ascendant Studios
Bethesda Softworks
Blind Squirrel Games
Bungie
Electronic Arts
Enhance Games
Epic Games
Game Pill
Gearbox Software
GoodbyeWorld Games
Grumpy Pixel
iNK Stories
Insomniac Games
Kabam
Microsoft Studios
MWM
Netmarble
Ninja Theory
Nintendo
Obsidian Entertainment
ProbablyMonsters
Proletariat
Ready at Dawn
Riot Games
Romero Games
Schell Games
Skydance Interactive
Sony Computer Entertainment
Square Enix
Take-Two Interactive
That's No Moon
Ubisoft
Valve
Wargaming
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Former Corporate Members
505 Games
Six Foot
Big Fish Games
Campo Santo
Capcom
Daglow Entertainment
Day 1 Studios
Digital Capital
Digital Continue
Disney Interactive
Double Fine Productions
Gas Powered Games
Gree
Google
Harmonix
Nexon
Phosphor Games Studio
Playdead
Pixel Reef
PopCap Games
Psyonix
Red Barrels
Remedy Entertainment
Robot Entertainment
Sega
Streamline Media Group
Sucker Punch Productions
Tencent Boston
THQ
Twisted Pixel Games
Versus Evil
VRWERX
References
External links
Video game organizations
1992 establishments in the United States
Awards established in 1998
Organizations established in 1992
Video game development
Recurring events established in 2002
Video game trade shows
2002 establishments in Nevada