Trump to meet with games industry, but US trade body and members have heard nothing

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According to a comment by White House press secretary Sarah Sanders last night, Trump is planning on meeting with members of the games industry as part of his response to the recent shootings in Florida.

"Next week he’ll also be meeting with members of the video game industry to see what they can do on that front as well. This is going to be an ongoing process, and something we don’t expect to happen overnight."

However, a representative from the Entertainment Software Association told Gamasutra

that the “ESA and our member companies have not received an invitation to meet with President Trump,"

Aside from the usual lack of clarity we’ve come to expect from the Trump White House, the very idea that the government should be meeting industry representatives at this time is exactly the kind of misdirection we’ve some to expect from the US government, and as Gamasutra points out that goes back well before the current administration. With Joe Biden calling for a similar meeting in 2012 after the Sandy Hook shootings.

The industry in the US should resist any such meeting, as far as possible, as to do so would simply entangle it in a debate they’ve been through numerous times before. One with no possible outcomes that would actually affect gun violence in the US.

Thankfully the UK government has usually erred on the side of reason and research in recent years, being far more concerned about sedentary lifestyles than the possibility of violent outcomes – and just to absolutely clear for which there’s no evidence.

IF you’re really curious about the current position on this kind of thing then Gamasutra has an excellent recent blog post on the subject.

Thankfully, these issues aren’t of such grave and immediate concern in the UK. However, whether it’s violence, a lack of exercise, or the new spectre of loot boxes and gambling habits, it’s important to keep up the fight for rational and research-based responses to societal issues and to make sure that our industry is ahead of any actual issues, should they be proven to exist.