 On December 9 , 1993 , the United States Congress began to hold hearings on video game violence and the marketing of violent video games to children . One of the games at the center of this controversy was the Sega CD 's Night Trap , a full @-@ motion video adventure game by Digital Pictures . Night Trap had been brought to the attention of United States Senator Joe Lieberman , who said of the game , " I looked at that game , too , and there was a classic . It ends with this attack scene on this woman in lingerie , in her bathroom . I know that the creator of the game said it was all meant to be a satire of Dracula ; but nonetheless , I thought it sent out the wrong message . " Lieberman 's research later went on to conclude that the average video game player at the time was between seven and twelve years old , and that video game publishers were marketing violence to children . Similar issues were brought up in the United Kingdom , with former Sega of Europe development director Mike Brogan noting that " Night Trap got Sega an awful lot of publicity .... Questions were even raised in the UK Parliament about its suitability . This came at a time when Sega was capitalizing on its image as an edgy company with attitude , and this only served to reinforce that image . " Although experiencing increased sales as a result of the hearings , Sega decided to recall Night Trap and re @-@ release it with revisions in 1994 . After the close of these hearings , video game manufacturers came together in 1994 to establish the rating system called for by Lieberman , eventually materializing in the form of the Entertainment Software Rating Board . 
