Disappointing but not entirely unsurprising. The ESA and IGDA are apparently going to play the political game as opposed to trying to do the right thing, which just means things are going to get worse as the attitude they are taking is more or less a big part of what set this off to begin with.
Right now the correct action for these groups to take would be to start paying a closer attention to the gaming media, who is saying what, and what is going on around what they are saying, and then start doing whatever they can within their spheres of influence to crack down on trouble makers and corruption within the gaming media.
I'm not that familiar with Wu's body of work but I do know Sarkessian's so that's the position I'll mostly be speaking from since I'm guessing they are similar. Basically Anita is a trouble maker who goes out of her way to rally SJWs to the defense of non-existent issues. Claiming things like how scanty outfits for female characters are exploitive, that there is rampant misogyny in the idea of women being rescued, or being on the receiving end of violence instead of just inflicting it, and all kinds of things. When challenged she, and people like here, either resort to outright suppressing comment, encourage their platforms to ban dissent, and otherwise just ignore anything said in return that they otherwise cannot find a way to censor. On the few occasions where they address points made against them, they do so in very ridiculous terms that make their agenda clear, for example saying that "it doesn't count when men are shown the same way women are because it doubles as male power fantasy that way" such as in reference to the unrealistic proportions of heroic fantasy models. These people also claim to speak for women, while at the same time pretty much ignoring all of the women who create fantasy out there and who have been successful at it, many writing for a female audience. Simply put video games accurately represent the genera most of them are working with as presented by both male an female creators, it's actually a radical fringe that claim to have an issue, and ultimately it's an issue that cannot be made without resorting to some serious misandry via the use of double standards by claiming that say the chainmail bikini is somehow different than the furry barbarian thong male "Conan Types" are given when really they are exactly the same thing and just as ridiculous. Basically in heroic fantasy neither gender gets treated any differently when you get down to it, the general portrayal is one where people of the same gender want to be them, those of the opposite gender want to be with them (so to speak).
That's a brief run down above, I've gone into more detail in other posts pointing out all the problems inherent in it, and of course the fact that the people involved in these crusades do everything they can to shut down criticism and counter-points being made to them. The thing is that what your seeing recently is people getting sick of those doing this, and the SJWs, many entrenched in the gaming media, keeping it going. You see a lot of the threats and anger and such in part because there is literally no way to get these people to shut up, there is no positive or constructive way to shut these people down, and that makes people angry. The attacks aren't because they are women, but because of the attention getting non-issues they represent and the fact that the vacuum chamber they and their supporters have gradually created makes them seem to have valid positions to theoretical outside observers who aren't more familiar with the material in question, potentially leading to changes and damage within gaming against the will of the actual majority, some of which are starting to rise up and become just as vehement as the SJWs that they are confronting.
Basically what these organizations need to be doing is saying that yes, it is wrong for people to be making these threats, but at the same time to also make it clear that the antics of those being attacked and their supporters are not acceptable either. These organizations should be doing everything they can to put pressure on people like Anita Sarkessian, and game journalists with social agendas and such, to stop being trouble makers. The bigger organizations involved in this kind of thing, as far as they are able, need to become the legitimate authorities who will pressure game journalists or political trolls into submission when they go beyond a specific level making it so "vigilante" activity of the sort we're seeing is less necessary. Understand the reason why people get mad enough to threaten Anita is because by definition they can't confront her message, not because she's right, but because she and supporting SJWs in the media pretty much control all the platforms, and they can ban anyone saying anything they don't care for in their own back yard.
See, the big thing here to understand is that nothing someone like Anita says is actually true in any real sense, or hasn't been for a very long time. Both men and women pretty much get their turns being bent over by obnoxious tropes, most of which go back to heroic fantasy. At the end of the day heroic fantasy characters tend to represent some form of physical ideal, and also dress fairly outrageously. Half the point of heroic fantasy being what it is, is that even in a "realistic" situation the hero will be pretty flamboyant simply because he can. Sure it makes no sense for a female character to be running around a modern battlefield wearing a dominatrix outfit, but it also doesn't make much sense for a dude to be doing it wearing nothing but tight leather pants and a little vest either (yes Lobo, I'm talking about you). The fact is within this genera people do it because they can, I mean if bullets bounce off of you, or your so fast that you can't be hit by mere mortals, or you regenerate as fast as your hurt, or have a personal force field active whenever you want one (or even all of the above) we're moving outside of reality, and heck, at that point you can pretty much dress however you want. Even in more realistic types of set ups the costumes might be dumb, but that's where the fantasy part comes in, you know your getting stupid with your arguments when say your picking on female warriors for their clothing choices while not questioning how Frank Frazetta dressed (or rather didn't dress) Conan in similar situations. When women write fantasy stuff, one of my favorite examples is Kim Harrison since I like her work and she's produced lot of it now, you'll notice that if anything they actually dial this stuff up to 11. Of course anyone who has ever read the books they based "True Blood" off of (or heck, even watched the TV show) can probably tell you that as well.
On the rare occasions when someone like Anita represents a counter point, it comes down to pure misandry. Basically the idea that Conan looking like he does is an empowerment fantasy, while say a female warrior doing the same is not. It comes down to pure misandry, as well as a lot of disrespect for female creators who do characters like that as much if not more than the guys do because at the end of the day men and women both feel empowered by being strong, sexy, and unfettered (so to speak). Men and women aren't so different here, and indeed if you follow amateur writing at all you might have heard the term "Mary Sue" which largely exists because of girls who write stuff on fiction forums that dial things up to ridiculous levels in creating perfect power fantasy characters for themselves which oftentimes go well beyond the already high level of perfection possessed by heroic fantasy characters.
At any rate I can see why it's easier for these groups to throw in on the "OMG we must protect the wommin!" SJW bandwagon right now. It's the path of least resistance for them, as it would take a lot more work and make a lot more waves to actually try and deal with the problems, including going toe to toe with a very entrenched media infrastructure. In taking the current approach nothing really changes, but nothing gets better either.
Right now what is preventing this whole mess from getting worse is that we haven't seen Anita and her ilk really change anything majorly yet. After all "Bayonetta" just got her second game, and companies like "Team Ninja" are going strong. We've seen Ubisoft give up ground, but it's Ubisoft. Don't stop them and eventually you are going to see things start to happen, and that might be "great" until you consider that this just means the opposition is likely to ramp things up as well. Right now Anita and her ilk aren't that big a problem, nobody cares enough to do anything about them except make noise back and hope that someone steps in and says "okay yeah, this sucks, we need to start balancing it out". Once you start seeing tangible acts of harassment, or perhaps even real attacks, which probably won't be heralded ahead of time, it's going to be the fault of the groups who right now could be trying to do something but are choosing not to. Basically if someone puts a hole the size of a beer can through Anita's head, everyone will of course be screaming at the psycho who actually did it, and about how she didn't deserve to die for simply riding this platform and being annoying, and they would be correct, but at the end of the day it will all be the fault of the people who could prevent it by reigning her and her side in so as not to antagonize people to that level. Sort of like if a town lets a bunch of kids run around and terrorize people at a half way house for recovering criminally insane and former violent offenders. They go around throw rocks, throw insults, and for months nothing happens, the police do nothing, and nobody cares, then one day some unstable axe murderer reverts and kills a bunch of them. Sure they didn't deserve to die simply for being arseholes, but the authorities also let the situation happen, you could argue the police that didn't reign those kids in and let them inflict one sided torment until someone snapped were just as responsible as the axe murderer that eventually did. Albeit in this case it's a little different, being a situation where the existing free speech laws don't apply to private platforms allowing for unconfrontable platforms of the sort we're seeing here, and the harassment of large groups of people without any valid form of retaliation or actions that can be taken. Neither side here are inherently violent, but by allowing constant one sided antics and control of aspects of the media anger is being built to the point where you might eventually see someone snap... it's a slow potboil that has already been going on for years. Gamersgate is just the first explosion, and truthfully I don't think much will happen in the near future, but keep letting it simmer and it's just going to be worse. Those in a position to exert influence over this need to be acting on both sides, NOT just favoring one while condemning the other, that just adds more pressure.
At any rate while controversial, I'll say now, way ahead of time, I am very sorry to whomever dies because of this. If it continues, I expect someone will die. Most reading this will think me crazy (like usual) but we'll see in a few years if anyone remembers me calling it here. This is arguably one of the big places where steps could have been taken to avert whatever nastiness lies ahead. See, I don't like people like Anita, but I don't want them dead, and to be honest I don't really want them silenced either as I'm a huge believer in free speech, but I do want to see them balanced, and that not happening is a big part of the problem.