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After a lot of public back and forth, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has announced its attendance at a meeting with embattled president Donald Trump to discuss video game violence.
The meeting, scheduled to go ahead on Thursday, March 8. In the ESA’s statement to the press they said that it will "provide the opportunity to have fact-based conversation" about the video game industry.
Shortly after Trump originally claimed to be meeting people from across the games industry, several publishers and the ESA claimed it was the first they’d heard about it.
"Video games are enjoyed around the world and numerous authorities and reputable scientific studies have found no connection between games and real-life violence," continued the statement.
"Like all Americans, we are deeply concerned about the level of gun violence in the United States. Video games are plainly not the issue: entertainment is distributed and consumed globally, but the US has an exponentially higher level of gun violence than any other nation."
The issue of video games and violence has raised its head again after a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida where 17 students and teachers were killed.
The under-fire president met with an NRA leader earlier this week, who claimed that both Trump and vice president Trump were against gun control. He seems to have less enthusiasm for both the internet and video games, both of which he’s suggested were to blame for the violence.
