I feel a storm coming. Hopefully, Activision/Vivendi have made the right decision. I suppose only time will tell.

MasterDex

@J449: I'm going with the "ineffective money sink" theory until we hear otherwise.

What does anyone even need E3 for? The information age allows us to move beyond brick and mortar events and share important info directly with the public. Let GameStop and Wallmart come to them.

kidko

This is what happens when they take away the booth babes.

Sex sells, no one wants an intimate showing, big company's want rabid fans, big lights, big productions, lots of exposure for there big titles and of course 1/2 naked booth babes.

Note to self ESA, I think we screwed up :P

lakings

To the end user, it probably means nothing. Then again, I have no idea what the ESA does.. *heads over to Wikipedia*

mphz

@code.monkey:

I agree Leigh, write us up a nice Feature on what this means, impact, blah blah blah blah ok. Lie if you have to.
Have it on my desk monday morning (cause I'd rather read it than do my work.)

Thanks :D

Derigor

@J449: They're not really interested in protecting the rights of gamers. Their role is to protect the rights of the corporations who make games. Sometimes the two interests intersect, other times they do not.

chantron

If the ESA were seen as an ineffective money sink, then one might be inclined to not join.

However if they are effective in protecting the rights of gamers, then yes it would be significant.

J449

I think we'll seeing the birth of a new industry group. Perhaps?

Maybe they were upset at certain other publishers having too much say within the ESA.

Just what we need, a new front in the gaming civil wars.

chantron

What exactly does this mean for the average gamer?

I'm not being snarky, I'm really just asking if this will have any effect on us at all.

Jay

Why would Vivendivision withdraw from the ESA? What the games industry needs is a more powerful lobbying presence, something it lacks in comparison with other media.

hahnchen

So Kotaku, I guess the question is . . . what does this mean for the industry? And what was the reason for the split?

DugDawg

This is serious. Is it possible giants like Activision and/or Vivendi could create their own version of the ESA?

LDJosh

Hmm.....thats definetly not good

excel_excel

Leigh, I'm hoping Kotaku (specifically you) will do some kind of article/feature talking about the ramifications of what appears to be a pretty significant change in the industry.

code.monkey

I figure they're probably not happy about how much they have to pay to stay members in this organization. Associations are only really good if they actually do things that help your company and your industry. I'm going to go out on a limb, and say that soon we won't even really have a reason for an e3. E3 is only really for mainstream media, and small time gaming press that can't afford 100 trips a year. I'm guessing the gamer day experiments that most of the larger companies have adopted is proving to be much better marketing tool rather than an industry focused event. They don't want to share floor space with EA, Capcom, Square,and take-two.

The ESA essentially was supposed to be an industry lobbying, and marketing tool, and maybe its just not worth it anymore

Kounji

Can someone explain to me why it's such a bad thing?

goldwings

I'm assuming that the ESRB is NOT a devision of the ESA, and if that holds true, I couldn't fart loud enough to express my opinion.

RonJeremy4Pres

This comes a day after it was noted that Activision and a number of other notable publishers were not listed as showing at "WHAT USED TO BE" the industry's big conference.

GTD

@ShirtGuyDom: DISCLAIMER: Not my actual opinion.

ShirtGuyDom

Yeah, we don't need no stinkin' ESA.

ShirtGuyDom

Soooo...does this mean I can finally downloaded abandonware by activison since they no longer have that pesky ESA warnings? I kid, I kid, they dont have any abandonware worth downloading :P

Wolfgeist

so... what does this mean for blizzard? whom i thought were a subsidy of Vivendi - whom also only just recently merged with Activision just recently?

zgnoud