The industry’s new round of muscle-flexing comes as the political and cultural environment for video games has improved significantly.

Image Michael Gallagher, of the Entertainment Software Association, said donations will let politicians know we are behind them. Credit... Brendan Smialowski for The New York Times

The high-water mark of political dudgeon about games came in 2005 when scenes of mild sexual provocation were discovered hidden with the code for the game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. In the wake of the controversy Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton proposed legislation to increase federal regulation of the game industry.

That proposal, however, found little traction on Capitol Hill. Meanwhile, federal courts have consistently invoked the First Amendment in striking down state attempts to regulate games more strictly than other media.

Now, Senator Clinton has appeared to make peace with the game industry, perhaps recognizing that while games were largely a children’s pastime in the 1980s, those children have now grown up, are voting, and are still enjoying video games. The average age of a gamer is now near 30, according to industry surveys.

“Games are a way that more and more people are spending their leisure time, and you do yourself a disservice as a candidate to attack how people spend that leisure time,” Robert A. Kotick, chairman of Activision, a top independent game publisher, said.

Mr. Kotick described the new PAC as “a great first step” but he cautioned that the film and music industries would still enjoy far more sway in Washington than the game industry, not least because “people like Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen help raise millions of dollars for candidates.” (In any case, the game industry is usually aligned with the music and film industries when it comes to lobbying efforts.)

Along with the evolving political climate, games have also become more accessible and less threatening in the broader culture. Nintendo’s Wii console, introduced in 2006, has been a big part of that shift, drawing in both children and older players with its simple point-and-wave control scheme. Music-oriented game franchises like Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero have become mass-market hits, while middle-aged women have become the top audience for puzzle games like Bookworm.