The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) is an American 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 than the first. 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.

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. Mike Fischer replaced Rae as president in 2016. 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.

{| class="wikitable sortable"

! style="width:5%" | Year

! style="width:30%" | Speaker

! style="width:65%" class="unsortable" |Occupation / role

|-

| 2007

|

| Vice-President of Sony Pictures Entertainment and President of Sony Pictures Digital

|-

| 2008

|

| Film director

|-

| 2009

|

| President, Valve

|-

| 2010

|

| CEO of Activision Blizzard

|-

| 2011

|

| CEO & Co-Founder, Blizzard Entertainment

|-

| 2012

|

| Game Director & Executive Producer, Bethesda Game Studios

|-

| rowspan="2" | 2013

|

| President, Valve

|-

|

| Film director

|-

| 2014

|

| CEO, CCP Games

|-

| 2015

|

| CEO, Riot Games

|-

| rowspan="2" | 2016

|

| Game creator/director

|-

|

| Film director

  • Activision Blizzard
  • Annapurna Interactive
  • Ascendant Studios
  • Bethesda Softworks
  • Blind Squirrel Games
  • Bungie
  • Disbelief
  • Electronic Arts
  • Enhance Games
  • Epic Games
  • Game Pill
  • Gearbox Entertainment
  • GoodbyeWorld Games
  • Grumpy Pixel
  • iNK Stories
  • Insomniac Games
  • Microsoft Studios
  • 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
  • Daglow Entertainment
  • Day 1 Studios
  • Double Fine Productions
  • MWM
  • Phosphor Games Studio
  • Psyonix