We preached once that Blizzard should not ignore the Chinese market through a series of articles here at GG.net. They did not, and not because of our ranting but because of the obvious economical realities. Now here is another reality. The future of e-sports is a certainty. Want to argue? Read ahead.
The economical advantages of e-sports has slowly but surely proven a winning formula. It pays to sponsor e-sports. This is something the corporate world is slowly starting to realize, not just Samsung and the Korean telecomunication giants. The money invested around the globe in e-sports is increasing with every day that goes by. Most of it so far is in the manner of advertising and brand name promotion; but even this will change too when e-sports develop themselves into spectator sports.
Online gaming is all about competition in its core values. When there is a market of 30 billion dollars out there in the gaming industry, which rivals the entretaining industry, and there is relatively speaking a vacum when it comes to money spent in e-sports, how long do you think do you think it will take e-sports to explode?
There are still two e-sport games dominating the arena, that is when it comes to significant money moving hands: Starcraft in Korea, and Counterstrike everywhere else, despite the efforts by many in the involved industries to add more games to the future bonanza frenzy. SK Telecom claims that for every dollar they spend promoting their "pro-gamer" team, they obtained back 10 back in revenues, directly and indirectly from increase sales of their products.
Samsung Economic Research Institute came up recently with the conclusion that running a e-sports team of proffesional players is five times more efficient than a traditional sport team of proffesional players. The beauty of the sytem is that not only are we, e-sport gamers, cheaper, but we happen to be the specific target market. This also plays against us at the same time. Meaning, you will not get Uncle Bob buying a pc box because Boxer inspired him too, but you will get every gamer out there to do so.
The number of people joining online gaming is climbing astronomically. If not how can one explain one game, WoW, selling 3.5 million (1.5 million in China), copies within a few months? If you think there can be no e-sports competition in MMORPG's, think again because it will happen too. It is just a matter of time. The corporate world never argues success, and winning business models always propagate themselves.
Those who hold the future of e-sports as an "uncertainty" are blind as bats in a sound proof room. The only uncertainty, is how much longer can Starcraft hold out in Korea as their main e-sports race horse; pun intended for those equestrian fans. Also, as much as we wish Starcraft to be the main e-sport game world wide like in Korea, it will not happen without Blizzards direct involvement. Now does it have still the potential to play this roll? You bet; more people have played Starcraft than any other online game out there. If interested read the following articles and site links that might shed more light on the subject.
//Entropy
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