Harmonix joins Insomniac and The ESA against the Travel Ban

[RepentantSky]

Harmonix: http://www.gamespot.com/articles/harmoni...0-6447482/

Insomniac Games: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2485MmEBwI

ESA: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/?to...oogle.com/

I'm not sure if any companies that are a part of the ESA have spoken out against the ban on their own, but I'm fairly sure that they haven't spoken against the ESA as of this point. 

Harmonix is, as far as I know, the most recent company to speak out against the Travel Ban made by President Trump stating that one of their Co-founders is Middle Eastern and that many of them are the sons and daughters of immigrants, if not immigrants themselves. The ESA spoke out against the ban, citing the presence and importance of immigrants in the gaming industry, and Insomniac's video makes it clear that the ban could hurt their business, and that several of their own employees are in fact immigrants. The ESA, as of this moment speaks for large gaming companies like Sony, Microsoft, Ubisoft, EA and Blizzard.

At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if more gaming companies came out against the ban.

[CLXcool]

Honestly. I can see a lot of companies being against this. Without the connections from other countries, they won't make most of their profit off of video games.

[Melcadrien]

Depends on the country. But I do agree that it can affect their bottom line for revenue. As long as there is demand there will be a sale somewhere in the world.

[CLXcool]

Say if Nintendo got the big ban from Donald Trump. They wouldn't make most off their profits in America because of the said ban. The same can be said for Sega, Ubisoft, as well as ANY developer who isn't in the USA.

[retrolinkx]

^

Technically, Sega was founded in Hawaii. I'm sure they could force some legal mumbojumbo of being an American company based in Japan.

[RepentantSky]

I don't see why either of you would bother mentioning Japan, they aren't involved in the US travel ban and honestly are probably considered too much of a profitable export provider to be banned in this day and age. Most of the companies who have spoken out against the ban are doing so either because they have people working for them that are affected by it, or because they find it an immoral practice. Granted, I doubt it's all perfectly clear intentions, but a business is a business, and if they are going to suffer from a choice made my an entity that they had no control over, it's hard to argue with them.

[CLXcool]

I'm just saying. If this 'Travel Ban' is expanded to elsewhere to effect countries that are not muslim related, its a BIG no good for business ventures.

[RepentantSky]

Gabe Newell has also spoken out against the ban, citing issues with an annual Dota tournament, and employees at Valve being stuck here because they live on Visa's: http://www.pcgamer.com/gabe-newell-on-us...t-go-home/

[Melcadrien]

Well good news is that the ban has been hit with an injunction, so to speak.

In other good news Humble has a bundle for this week that has a bunch of games that allow you to choose from three groups that provide humanitarian aid. https://www.humblebundle.com/freedom