ESA trade group warns Trump White House that travel ban would disrupt game industry

The Entertainment Software Association, the game industry’s top trade group in the United States, issued a statement asking the White House to use caution in the implementation of its travel ban on visitors from seven countries in the Middle East and Africa.

Earlier this weekend, game developers from around the world issued statements and tweets criticizing President Donald Trump’s order banning refugees and barring citizens from Iraq, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen from entering the United States for 90 days. Trump also banned foreigners with U.S. permanent resident green cards from entering the country without vetting, and he permanently banned refugees from Syria.

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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.