The ESA stated today that the video game firms, Codemasters and Epic Games, have attained membership in the Entertainment Software Association bringing the grand total of companies on the membership roll to 29. Both Codemaster and Epic Games have numerous successes within recent memory. Codemasters recently enjoyed a record breaking fiscal year and was also named “Developer of The Year” at the Golden Joystick Awards in the United Kingdom. Epic Games was responsible for the massively popular Gears of War title which to date has sold 3 million copies in it’s first ten weeks and the company was also responsible for the development of the widely used Unreal Engine 3 which has been awarded the Game Developer Front Line Award for Best Game Engine three years running.

Geoff Mulligan, the President of North American Publishing for Codemasters, was quoted as saying that “As our output diversifies, we are reaching an ever widening consumer base and that’s particularly evident in North America where Codemasters, Inc. is now the group’s fastest growing division”. Mulligan also added that “With that growth comes responsibility to the market and its organizations. Having been part of the creation of the ESA, it continues to be an organization whose work holds particular importance and relevance today and I am proud to have Codemasters join its membership.” Mr. Mulligan is also a founding member of the ESA.

Tim Sweeney, the Chairman and CEO of Epic Games, stated that"As an independent game developer and pioneer in enabling game mods and user-created content with the Unreal Engine, we look forward to bringing our unique views on balancing intellectual property rights and user freedoms to the ESA.”

Finally the CEO of the ESA, Michael D. Gallagher, offered these words regarding the joining of Codemasters and Epic Games. Mr. Gallagher said that It is my hope that with their ESA membership, we can help these two companies capitalize on the tremendous opportunities for growth in the U.S market” and that he was “ pleased to welcome Codemasters and Epic Games to the ESA”. Mr. Gallagher also took the membership of these two companies as “evidence that the ESA is the preeminent growing and innovative trade association in Washington, DC.”