Yesterday, news came down the wire about Crave Entertainment’s departure from the ESA. Up until now all the speculation given for companies refusing to continue to be a part of the ESA dealt with rising membership costs, and general unhappiness towards ESA president Michael Gallagher. The ESA released a statement citing their continuing support of Crave without going into specifics about why they parted ways. Perhaps they felt it’s more professional to let Crave handle that - which they did.

Today Crave Entertainment’s president Michael Maas cleared up the whole situation before anything misleading could be said. He stated Crave’s departure wasn’t because of any bad blood between them and the ESA - they simply couldn’t renew because Crave Entertainment is up for sale. “Crave’s departure from ESA at this juncture is not a statement against the value provided by our longstanding membership, but rather was motivated by our need to focus on the impending sale of our company,” said Maas. “We will be re-evaluating our decision, hopefully in the near future. Crave still supports the goals and aims of ESA.”

We can’t tell right now who is in the running to aquire Crave, or if they will continue to work alongside the ESA once they are bought.