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. 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 ==