So, Why did Activision leave the ESA? People have been searching for one for weeks now, and now, Bobby Kotick (pictured, presumably while filming a commercial for Nautica) has the answer. And that answer is: we're special. So special. Kotick says that "We have our own issues that are not the industry's issues...Our challenges are sufficiently different from other publishers' issues that we need our own point person". Translation: they make so much money from World of Warcraft (as well as Asian markets) that they feel the ESA aren't up to the job. Instead, the company will be handling government relations on their own, with an announcement on who'll be entrusted with that job to be made "soon".
Why Activision left the ESA [Variety]