Now that the dust has settled over the violent video game case, it might be timely to revisit a truly pivotal First Amendment issue that virtually escaped notice by scholars, courts and litigants: why constitutional principles of free expression should protect any video games, violent or benign. To be sure, that issue never reached the Supreme Court because California (like other states that have argued unsuccessfully for regulation of graphic violence) simply conceded that such games were protected under the First Amendment. Nonetheless, had anyone wished to question this long-settled premise, a fascinating debate could well have been revived and some striking differences among electronic media might well have re-emerged.

Citation
Robert M. O’Neil, Video Games as Protected Speech: From Obscurity to Unanimity, Jurist (July 10, 2011).