Mike Gallagher, CEO of the Entertainment Software Assocation, at Sony's event at E3 2018.
Mike Gallagher, head of GetIntrepidity and former CEO of the Entertainment Software Assocation, at Sony's event at E3 2018.
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Outgoing ESA CEO Mike Gallagher may be moving on to politics

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 4 min

Mike Gallagher resigned his job as CEO of the Entertainment Software Association today, after 11 years running the video game industry’s lobbying group in the U.S.

Gallagher didn’t say what he would do next, but we heard that he is considering a run at a political campaign in his home state of Washington. Variety, meanwhile, reported that Gallagher was forced out by the board. Dan Hewitt, a spokesman for the ESA, declined to comment on Gallagher’s plans or why he left.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.