Update: Polygon is reporting that the meeting between the ESA President Michael Gallagher and Joe Biden's task for on gun violence also reportedly included executives from many major publishers, researchers, and the nation's biggest video game retailer.

Late last night the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) broke its silence on the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, offering its condolences to the families of the victims, but urging lawmakers to include a mountain of research that has shown no correlation between playing video games and real-world violence. The statement was likely a response to a bill in the senate sponsored by Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) that calls for the National Academy of Sciences to conduct an 18-month study of the effect of violent video games compared to other entertainment mediums.

The 15th annual Nite to Unite - For Kids gala raised $822,000 for the ESA Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Entertainment Software Association, the event's organizers announced today. The black-tie event took place last week in San Francisco, where various game industry luminaries and the media got together for a good cause. Valve co-founder and managing director Gabe Newell was also honored at Nite to Unite as the 2012 ESA Champion Honoree. Previous honorees include Blizzard president and CEO Mike Morhaime and Star Wars franchise creator George Lucas.

The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) announced what they are calling a "streamlined, no-cost service for assigning ratings to all digitally delivered games." The ESRB's new "Digital Rating Service" gives developers and publishers access to a "brief but detailed online questionnaire" to define a product's content, age-appropriateness, interactive elements, and platforms.

The Entertainment Software Association of Canada announced that Jayson Hilchie is the new president and CEO of the lobbying group for the Canadian video game industry. Before taking on this new leadership role, Hilchie previously served in a similar role at Nova Scotia Business Inc., where he helped foster growth in that region's video game industry by aiding such studios as Longtail, Frontier Developments, and Radian6 establish offices in Halifax.

The Entertainment Software Association Foundation (the charitable arm of the video game trade group the ESA) announced that it has awarded 30 would-be game developers scholarships for the 2012-2013 period. The ESA scholarships provide each recipient $3,000 that goes towards their education in fields such as 3D modeling, computer science, game art, animation, digital media, game design and visual effects.

The Entertainment Software Association Foundation (a charitable arm of the Entertainment Software Association) has partnered with the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals (CMH Hospitals) to support this year's Extra Life nationwide fundraising initiative. Extra Life is a funding drive that uses thousands of gamers to get sponsorships for playing games for 24-hours. Those sponsorships go to the CMH Hospital of their choice.

Valve Software co-founder and managing director Gabe Newell will be honored at Entertainment Software Association Foundation's 'Nite to Unite – For Kids' event on October 18. Newell is being honored for creating software used to develop problem solving skills in young students. The award ties to a 2011 partnership between Valve and the United States Department of Education to use a modified version of Portal in classrooms across the United States.

While other App stores such as Google Play and Apple App Store have eschewed the ESRB ratings system here in the United States in favor of their own internal systems, Verizon is taking a different tact. Verizon has been slowly adding the ESRB ratings system for all of the gaming apps in the Verizon App Store for its supported Android devices.

After the Entertainment Software Association hinted that it might take the Electronic Entertainment Expo to somewhere else next year besides Los Angeles (due to concerns about construction projects), it seems like the city and the ESA have worked things out. It was announced this morning that the ESA and the city have signed a new three-year contract for the annual media and trade show event. As of this announcement the E3 Expo will remain in L.A. until 2015.

President Barack Obama yesterday urged members of the U.S. Senate to pass the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 and encouraged representatives of Congress to draft and pass a similar bill quickly, saying:

Former Entertainment Software Association (ESA) senior vice present and general counsel Kenneth Doroshow has joined the law firm of Jenner & Block as a partner. Jenner & Block is a law firm that specializes in media and entertainment and is located in Washington D.C.

Doroshow and Jenner & Block partner Paul Smith led the legal team that won the Supreme Court Case Brown v. EMA. The court ultimately struck down the California law authored by California State Senator Leland Yee (D- San Francisco).

In the old days, Supreme Court Justices had very little information to turn to outside of legal briefs presented by combatants and case law when making a ruling, but a new study by William & Mary law professor Allison Orr Larsen finds that justice are increasingly turning to information on the Internet to shore up their opinions. According to research from Larsen, there were more than 100 instances where justices used information on the Internet in their opinions.

A partnership between non-profits and the video game industry will bring gamification and education together through a new Games, Learning and Assessment (GLASS) Lab. This video game design lab will be housed in EA's Redwood, California headquarters, and will conduct research on how to better measure learning and to find new ways to get students more engaged in their education.

Cisco Systems, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), Activision Blizzard, Intel, and IBM, are the latest entities to send letters to the International Trade Commission asking them not to institute a ban on the Xbox 360 or various Apple products. Florian Mueller of Foss Patents has the breakdown of why Cisco and the ESA have sided with Microsoft in this particular dispute between the company behind Xbox 360 and Windows and Google-owned Motorola Mobility.

As it traditionally does after the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles is over, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) released attendance figures for the annual event. Curiously the organization responsible for E3 did not announce what city it will take place in next year.

E3 Expo owner the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) offered some lovely statistics on the industry and the gaming populace at the opening of the event today in Los Angeles. According to the ESA, 49 percent of all American households are playing games in some form, with a large number of households playing their favorite game apps on smartphones, tablets and handheld devices. More than 30 percent play games on their smartphones, compared to 20 percent last year.

Is E3 done as a Los Angeles institution in 2013? According to an LA Times report it may relocate if problems associated with the construction of Farmers Field and the rebuilt convention center are not resolved. This is according to Michael Gallagher, president of the Entertainment Software Association, the organization that owns and operates the annual games industry event.

The Digital Media Association (DiMA), Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA), National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM), and National Association of Theatre Owners declare June to be "Entertainment Ratings and Labeling Awareness Month." June has been proclaimed "Entertainment Ratings and Labeling Awareness Month" by the groups since 2004. The participating organizations are encouraging movie theaters, and retailers of movies, music, and video games to highlight the importance of ratings systems to their customers.

A recent interview with Mojang's Chief Executive Carl Manneh on IT 24 (translated by MCVNordic and reported on by GamesBeat) reveals that the Minecraft maker is seriously considering a subscription model for its popular world building game and why it decided to boycott the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles this summer.

The President's Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition hopes to get inactive kids away from the sedentary lifestyle and into one where using active video games is a common occurrence. The President's Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition (PCFSN), U.S.

In a freshly-posted interview with Gamasutra, the ESRB's top executive talks about making the voluntary ratings system used by the North American video game industry a universal ratings system, among various topics including how to deal with getting consistent ratings on mobile and portable platforms such as Android and iOS devices and the challenges related to digitally distributed games.

The Entertainment Software Association's (ESA) Video Game Voters Network (VGVN) sent out a congratulatory message to Oklahoma gamers who defeated a law in the state that would have added a 1 percent "sin tax" to mature rated video games. The goal of the tax was to fund juvenile obesity programs. House Bill 2696 never made it out of committee and a proposal to create an Oklahoma Task Force on Video Games' Relationship to Obesity and Aggression also failed approval.

The state of California has agreed to pay the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) $950,000 in legal fees related to arguing Brown v. EMA before the U.S. Supreme Court. When combined with reimbursements for the 2008 case (which the state already paid), the grand total that California paid the ESA comes to $1,327,000.

The organizers of the 12th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCA) have revealed the recipients of two of its Special Awards: the Pioneer Award and the Ambassador Award. The Pioneer Award is given to a developer for creating breakthrough video game genres or concepts that have a lasting impact on the industry. The Ambassador Award is given to individuals who do something that elevates the video game development community and industry as a whole.

The Entertainment Software Association announced that it no longer supports the Stop Online Piracy Act or the Protect IP Act. In a statement released today the trade group representing the video game industry said that it had always intended to support a bill that was balanced and fair.

As we reported last week, a petition at Change.org is asking Electronic Arts to publicly come out against SOPA.  The number of signatures now sits north of 135,000.

Andrew Eisen gives us a visual representation of how gamers felt when they heard the news that the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) was supporting the Stop Online Piracy Act. Is this the thanks gamers get from the trade group representing the video game industry after all of their hard work in Brown v. EMA?

We'll let you judge for yourselves. This is probably the best video Andrew has ever made, in my humble opinion. Watch it to you left and be sure to stop by Andrew's YouTube Channel to subscribe.

What level of commitment does the Entertainment Software Association have in the anti-piracy bills before lawmakers? About $190,000's worth according to a Kotaku report.

Maybe the comments on the Video Game Voters Network (the Entertainment Software Association's advocacy group for gamers) Facebook page are purely anecdotal, or represent what Lamar Smith (the Texas Republican Congressman who is to lead sponsor on the Stop  Online Piracy Act) calls a very "vocal minority," but the entire page seems to be inundated with negative comments.