ESA Rumblings

File this under general interesting gaming news. ESA spent 5 million to move E3 out of LA only to move it back, Kotaku reports.
The expense of breaking a contract that locked the show in LA through 2012, along with the expected drop in E3 revenue associated with the event's downsizing, led the association's board to drastically increase their membership dues last year.

Rich Taylor, Entertainment Software Association senior vice president of communications and research, said that all of the changes made by the association, including the costly jump from LA and the increase in dues, were decisions made by the group's board, which is made up of executives from 19 of the association's 25 member companies.

"I don't think it's a mistake," he said. "There was a model in Santa Monica that we tried and after the event we polled participants across the board about what they thought of it and then we tried to figure out what we could do to make it better and returning to the Los Angeles Convention Center was the right decision."
Additionally, LucasArts has left ESA, joining Activision-Vivendi. EA has commented that this abandoning of the ship reflects on "lack of leadership" of the ESA.

It's slowly starting to look like trouble for both E3 and ESA.