2008 has not been kind to the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). It all started in the late winter/early spring of the year, when Activision announced that they would not be attending this year's E3 show in Los Angeles. Since then, Activision, Vivendi, LucasArts, id, Crave, and Codemasters have all departed the ESA for one reason or another, mostly without any real comment from the publishers.

Today we learn from GamePolitics that one more company has joined the ranks of those leaving the group. NC Interactive, which is the American branch of Korean company NCsoft, is no longer a member of the ESA. The company, who has been facing a mountain of bad financial news, including massive layoffs and plans to cancel MMO Tabula Rasa, could simply no longer afford to pay the fees associated with membership in the organization.

GamePolitics got this (rather typical) quote from ESA Senior VP Rich Taylor:

"We can confirm that NCsoft decided not to renew its ESA membership.  We respect their decision and remain committed to serving the public affairs needs of the computer and video game industry."

Ouch. For those of you keeping score, the ESA's membership stands at 21 publishers, down from 28 at the beginning of the year. In these tough financial times, I wonder who will be the next to opt out.

[Source]

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