Yesterday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said that President Trump was planning on meeting with “members of the video game industry” to discuss violence in video games and how that might factor into the school violence that’s been occurring around the country for years.
It appears that Sanders might have gotten ahead of herself. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA), which presents the US video game industry, released a statement last night saying that height it or any of its members have received an invitation from Trump administration to talk abut this issue with the president.
Here’s the full statement:
ESA and our member companies have not received an invitation to meet with President Trump.
The same video games played in the US are played worldwide; however, the level of gun violence is exponentially higher in the US than in other countries. Numerous authorities have examined the scientific record and found there is no link between media content and real-life violence.
The US video game industry has a long history of partnering with parents and more than 20 years of rating video games through the Entertainment Software Rating Board. We take great steps to provide tools to help players and parents make informed entertainment decisions.
ESA members include companies like Sony’s PlayStation division, Microsoft, Activision, EA, Nintendo, Take Two, and many other companies.
In a briefing this morning, Sanders said that the invites for the discussion were sent out on Thursday, so it might be possible that the right people haven’t been alerted yet. We reached out to ESA and requested an update if and when companies of the group receive the invitation. If we hear anything back, we will update the report.
https://twitter.com/TonyRomm/status/969567003324317697