![]() ![]() Many traditional sports team owners also invest in our own esports teams, he said. While the two forms of sport - tradition and esport - may seem at odds to some, Segal said they’re actually not competing with one another. This approach leans on the experience of traditional sports and its long history of geographically located teams. In the case of the Immortals, he said, that means supporting the LGBTQ community, supporting women, supporting families.Īnother approach, which is most clearly represented in the Overwatch League, is forming teams based in specific cities around the world. ![]() Immortals approach, he said, is to build a team that emphasizes values. That also makes it harder to tell stories around the teams and their players. Immortal’s Segal pointed out that differentiating esports teams has historically been a challenge because they often aren’t affiliated with a city, state or nation. Right now that innovation in esports seems to be happening around league and team structure. We try to figure out when the next reset is going to occur.” “Anytime something is too big or costly to expand on that paradigm, there is a reset. “We’re thinking of where the tech is going,” he said. The company is also always trying to invest in where the sport is headed. You need to take a portfolio approach to reach the right audiences.” “Then we spread out our investment to ‘NBA 2K,’ to Overwatch League. John Bonini, VP and general manager of esports and gaming at Intel, said the key to its long-lived success is building out a sort of portfolio of esports that the company supported. Intel and its technology have been supporting esports and hosting its own tournaments for about 15 years. “Being able to connect people on the internet, being able to have fragmented universes of people that could play and compete and having tech to identify who those elite players are, were all fundamental,” he said. Segal added that technology as a whole was also a big factor, as technology has improved the ability to play online, gather in groups online and watch online has become easier and better. She also noted the shifting of viewing habits helped as well. “But it wasn’t until the rise of a few things, one of them Twitch which enabled streaming and allowed a lot of people to come in and watch esports, that it started to blow up.” “It’s a combination of things,” she said. Van Wyck noted that Twitch and services like it were a big part of that success. “In the last three to five years, nonendemic press and investment have flowed into esports in a way that it hasn’t previously and that’s brought a level of awareness and exposure to folks who are generally of a different demographic than people who either play or watch esports,” he said. The group also predicts the esports industry to reach $1.4 billion by 2020.Īri Segal, president and COO of Immortals, noted that esports isn’t an overnight success, with decades of stops and starts before finally getting significant traction relatively recently. The panel kicked off with a quick primer on the growing success of esports, noting that analyst firm Newzoo expects the global esports economy to grow to more than $900 million by the end of the year, with viewers totally 380 million. “Those are all things that go into the development process that didn’t before,” she said. To do that, Microsoft and developer 343 Industries is focusing on expanding its communication with the community and with pro teams not just on existing games, but on how future games will function, she said. That includes making assurances to fans, players and potential business partners that Halo’s online competitive modes won’t see major changes that could throw gameplay and competition completely out of whack. It wasn’t until very recently that we looked at the space and said, ‘We want to significantly invest in it and create a structure that not just has longevity but has consistencies that others can build businesses off of.” ![]() “Halo has a long legacy with esports,” Van Wyck said. The discussion also touched on why esports is finally taking off, the positive impact traditional sports has on esports, the opportunity esports represents when it comes to diversity, and the importance of community. ![]() Van Wyck was speaking on a panel discussing the expansion of esports and the business of esports alongside representatives from Intel, NBA 2K League, and pro esports team Immortals. But at the end of the day, we have to build an awesome game.” “In developing for the next game, it is a key piece of how we think about how we built out multiplayer, which is the mode that our esports is built off of,” she said. Esports is a fundamental element of how “ Halo Infinite’s” multiplayer game is being designed and will function, Elizabeth Van Wyck, head of business, operations and esports for the Halo franchise at Microsoft, said during Variety’s Entertainment and Technology Summit earlier this month. ![]()
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