CYNOPSISeSPORTS & GAMING
08.11.16
It’s Thursday, August 11, 2016, and this is your weekly early morning eSports & Gaming brief.
Circle Sept. 7 on your calendars as Sony is expected to unveil its upgraded PlayStation 4 console at its upcoming PlayStation event at the PlayStation Theatre in New York City at 3p. “Neo,” the official codename of the next PlayStation, will cost more than the $350 PlayStation 4, diving into 4K content and supporting PlayStation VR. A Sony representative confirmed to Polygon that the company will livestream the event.
COMPETITION
Mark down two more games for Rio. The International eGames Committee unveiled the titles that will be included in its Rio de Janeiro eGames Showcase, with SMITE and Super Smash Bros. making the grade. The event will take place on Aug. 15-16 at British House in Rio De Janeiro. Fans can catch all the action from both days via a stream provided ESL. “The Rio de Janeiro Showcase launches the eGames concept and we are so pleased with the support we have received from the UK Government, Hi-Rez Studios, Level Up, Nintendo and ESL,” said Chester King of the International eGames Group.
World of Tanks is heading to competitive platformer FACEIT in a move to beef its up core of eSports players, allowing organizers, players and communities to create and manage online competitions. FACEIT plans on hosting several tournaments, leagues and ladders on a daily and weekly basis with North American and European players vying for brand new hardware, in-game items, credits and cash prizes.
ESL hits gamecom offering tournaments spanning the likes of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Elsword, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, Lawbreakers, League of Legends, and Overwatch. In addition the league is partnering with Nintend to host a Splatoon Showdown atthe ESL Arena with all coverage livestreamed via Twitch.tv/ESL. The official ESL Event App will also keep gamescom visitors up-to-date with all ESL Arena action while HP, Intel, Lenovo, Logitech G, MEDION, NEXON, One.de, Robert Space Industries, Samsung, Sennheiser, Square Enix and ZOWIE will feature exclusive activities at their gaming booths in the ESL Arena.
Valve CEO Gabe Newell announced that The International Dota 2 gamers would be playing for a prize pool of over $20 million. That pile is up from last year’s tally of $18.4 million pot up for grabs in 2015 (with $1 million in 2011). The first place team will take home over $8.8 million for their efforts. A quarter of this year’s earning came of sales of the 2016 Battle Pass.
Blizzard Entertainment is launching an Overwatch competition at BlizzCon in November. The new Overwatch World Cup will see players from their countries faceoff in matches generated by fan voting, which begins on Aug. 11. Voting will target players instead of teams with 60 countries set to take part. Following online qualifiers, the top 16 teams will come together to compete live at BlizzCon.
ESL deepened its partnership with Microsoft and Forza Motorsport to support and broadcast the Forza Racing Championship. The one month event will see the Elite Series crown the best Forza player in the world and will award him/her with a brand new 2017 Ford Focus RS. Top players will also receive prizes from Xbox, Microsoft and Logitech, including: Xbox One S consoles, Xbox Elite controllers, Logitech wheels and more.
Alibaba Group detailed plans for the World Electronic Sports Games, a multi-title event that will showcase DOTA 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, StarCraft 2, and Hearthstone. The company will dangle a $1.5 million prize pool for CS:GO and DOTA 2, with Starcraft 2 offering $402,000 and Hearthstone putting up $300,000. The formal will see 24 teams compete in the finals after regional qualifiers with the main event of the tournament set to take place in Shanghai this December.
Digital gaming marketplace G2A.com is teaming with Sporting Club de Portugal (SCP), one of Europe’s biggest football teams. The club will play host to an upcoming eSports tournament called G2A Lion Games – which will allow FIFA players an opportunity to play for the club, and to “develop their relationship with G2A to new levels.”
INSIGHTS
Source: Newzoo
Who, exactly, makes up the US eSports audience? Newzoo recently released its findings, stating that he total esports audience in the US will hit 41.7 million with 20 million viewers classified as “Enthusiasts.” The biggest chunk of fans are male at 72% while millennials make up 48% of the enthusiast audience.
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PUBLISHING & PLATFORMS
Eidos Montreal is tapping the services of Tobii to allow multiple eye-tracking features for the PC version Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. According to the companies, Tobii EyeX and the SteelSeries Sentry “allow for greater game immersion, a cleaner UI, and enhanced navigation” with a release date of Aug. 23. “With the Deus Ex franchise being a window to the future, we always try to provide innovative, ground-breaking experiences for our players,” said Andre Vu, Executive Brand Director at Eidos Montréal. “The numerous Tobii eye tracking features built into the game will provide PC gamers an extra layer of immersion that blends perfectly with the futuristic universe depicted in Deus Ex.”
2K is turning to Sean “Diddy” Combs to curate the in-game soundtrack for WWE 2K17. The slate includes 13 unique songs from established and emerging artists that span multiple music genres, including hip-hop, indie and alternative rock, heavy metal and electronic dance. Artists include Action Bronson & Joey Bada$$, Anderson .Paak, Andy Blac, Black Sabbath, French Montana, Travis Barker & Yelawolf and more. WWE 2K17 is currently scheduled for worldwide release on Oct. 11.
Activision Blizzard reported better-than-expected earnings for the second quarter with net revenues hitting $1.57 billion, led by the success of Overwatch, which now boasts 15 million payers worldwide. Overall, Activision Blizzard had 491 million monthly active users during the period, while Blizzard reeled in the biggest quarterly online player community in its history, with MAUsA of 33 million, up 29% quarter-over-quarter and 13% year-over-year.
Pokemon Go hit $200 million in net revenue globally on the App Store and Google Play in its first month. According to Cowen analyst Doug Creutz, per Investor’s Business Daily, the game is on an annual revenue run rate of more than $1 billion.
Developer Relentless is closing shop after 13 years, according to Games Industry. The company was perhaps best known as the group behind the Buzz! series.
MARKETING & PROMOTION
Following a high-profile run as sponsor of ELeague, Bob Ruhland, VP of North America Marketing at Buffalo Wild Wings told [a]listdaily that the decision proved fruitful, noting that “Everything we anticipated happening, happened,” noting that in the future, “Seasons can’t be as long as they were. We knew this was an area that was going to change in a hurry. Even Turner offering Overwatch as a bridge season before they go intoCS:GO Season 2 is a good example of them learning on-the-fly.” He went on to project that ELeague matches will start being streamed nationally in restaurants next year.
EA Sports is launching a NHL Reward program, offering players “awesome hockey rewards, in-game digital content for Hockey Ultimate Team, and other great surprises and sweepstakes opportunities now and throughout the NHL 2016-2017 regular hockey season.” Members also receive early access to NHL 17 news, trailers, and other exclusive content.
Speaking of EA Sports, the company is deepening ties with the Premier League under a new "lead partner" status designed to offer greater cross promotion between the two organization that will include "on-screen branding on all the League’s global broadcasts, sponsorship of the official Player of the Month and Season Awards.” “This partnership will allow EA Sports to collaborate even more with the League and the clubs, and to be part of the interest and excitement around the competition, both through their fantastic games and the association with the Premier League that this agreement brings,” said Premier League Managing Director, Richard Masters.
Bud Light released the first entry in a five part series produced by Machinima showcasing the lives of five eSports athletes – aka the Bud Light All-Stars. The first ep spotlights Tyler “Ninja” Blevins and can be found here. Other profiles will include Chris “Zuna” Buetcher, Alex “LeX” Deily, Jason “Amaz” Chan and Ryan “FilipinoChamp” Ramirez.
LICENSING & EXTENSIONS
ESL is partnering with Wargaming to launch the official Wargaming online shop, opening the door for fans of Wargaming properties to purchase merchandise based around World of Tanks, Master of Orion and World of Warships as well as jerseys of teams competing in the WGL. “We value our players more than anything else at Wargaming. And they wanted to find in one place all the products around our biggest franchises,” said Markus Schill, General Manager Europe at Wargaming. “Because they deserve the best, we partnered with ESL to ensure a topnotch experience. And at Gamescom we will host a physical shop, where our players will be able to retrieve what is proposed on the website.”
blackshore is launching “The Pack” fan event in Anaheim, anchored by top Minecraft YouTube gaming stars. Mitch (BajanCanadian), Preston (PrestonPlayz), Jerome (JeromeASF), Lachlan (Lachlan), and Rob (MrWoofless). The event will run Sept 24-25. “blackshore is pleased to bring together top Minecraft video gaming stars for this exclusive Anaheim fan event,” said blackshore Co-Founder, Darrel Anderson. “Fans will get to see their favorite YouTube stars and take the ultimate selfie,” adds Anderson.
TECH
AMD unveiled the new Radeon™ RX 460 graphics card, engineered from the ground up for eSports gamers “who demand pristine HD gaming, extraordinarily smooth beyond-HD streaming capabilities, and a distinguished assortment of future-proof gaming technologies.” The card starts at $109. “The Radeon RX 460 delivers the perfect balance of price, power, performance and package size, the four key pillars of modern GPUs,” said Raja Koduri, senior vice president and chief architect, Radeon Technologies Group, AMD. “The Radeon RX Series is built on architecture designed for extraordinary power efficiency and is especially well suited to desktop gaming PCs targeted at mainstream price points. Radeon RX 460 users will enjoy an optimized software and hardware graphics card solution ideal for both eSports and iCafe systems.”
eSports staple HyperX surpassed the 1 million sales mark for its line of Gaming Headsets. The company announced that the items are now available in more than 10,000 stores and 80 countries across six continents. “Since the launch of our first gaming headset in 2014, we’ve continually evolved our design and approach to become an industry standard for quality and sound that gamers now expect,” said Lawrence Yang, business manager, HyperX. “As competitive and casual gaming continues to gain popularity across PCs, console and even mobile platforms, we thrive in the challenge to further advance our headsets to new levels of user comfort and sound engagement. We are excited to have reached the 1 million sales milestone in such a short amount of time, and we’re just getting started.”
BOSSES
Zynga named Matt Bromberg as COO of the company. He previously served at Electronic Arts and as President and CEO of Major League Gaming. "Zynga pioneered the social gaming space, and since its founding has truly connected the world through games like Words With Friends, FarmVille and the newly launched CSR Racing 2," said Bromberg. "I’m excited to work with Frank and the team at Zynga to reimagine how it brings games to market and engages players across the globe.”
POWER PLAYERS: Geoff Keighley
As The Game Awards closes in on its third production, gaming stalwart/entrepreneur/personality and show founder Geoff Keighley spoke with Cynopsis eSports & Gaming about his plans for the 2016 edition, adding new touchpoints to the event, which was created in partnership with the CEOs of Activision, EA, Konami, Nintendo, PlayStation, Rockstar Games, Xbox, Ubisoft, Valve, and Warner Bros Interactive. Last year’s edition saw viewership spike 20% year-over-year, hitting 2.3 million, with over a billion impressions on Twitter.
Keighley on the challenges of launching The Game Awards: The biggest challenge was risking my own money to launch the show in year one – nothing will ever beat that. Thankfully all the game publishers supported us and helped put The Game Awards on the map in year one. But there were a lot of skeptics – they all wondered how a show like this could work if it wasn’t on TV or backed by a major network. The biggest surprise was to see the audience (and sponsors) really embrace the show’s distribution and format – it’s made by gamers for gamers. It’s exciting to be building a new model for live tentpole events.
On the 2016 Awards: The Game Awards will return live on Thursday, December 1. One big change is that we will be broadcasting the show live in virtual reality across all the major platforms. It’s exciting to begin experimenting with VR. This show makes a lot of sense to do live in VR because the VR game market is exploding and musicians are excited by the format too.
On sponsors: It has been great to partner with major brands like Verizon, Bud Light, Taco Bell and AMD to bring their ideas to life inside the Game Awards. The way we approach sponsorships is really through the eyes of the viewer – how can a brand add value to the experience? All of our work with brands is very custom, it’s not off the shelf marketing where sponsors are running their TV spots in the show. Here’s what I can tell you: This audience really appreciates it when a brand wants to come in and support this industry and activate in an authentic way. Verizon was our title sponsor and literally said to me, “How can we help you make the show even bigger and better? You tell us what you want to do.” The level of trust the brands have placed in us is really flattering, and it’s a great audience to reach. Last year 80% of our viewers were millennials.
On eSports: eSports is such an interesting space – I remember doing eSports specials on Spike TV a decade ago for the World Cyber Games. The same is true today as it was back then: It’s all about the human-interest angle. I’m not a big believer in eSports airing live on traditional TV – this audience wants to watch the content on their phone or even inside the game. That said, a lot of the big eSports games are hard to follow if you aren’t an active player. I’m excited to see how a game like Clash Royale does in eSports because it’s a little easier to follow – the same as some of the fighting.
GAMING SPOTLIGHT- Arkane Preys Upon Alien DNA
Arkane Studios unleashed the first gameplay trailer for Prey, serving up a psychological twist to the title as your space station comes under attack. Blending the first-person sci-fi action with a heavy dash of nightmare material, the trailer looks to provoke restlessness before its release in 2017. Click here to watch.
ON THIS DAY in 2001: Nintendo releases Mario Kart: Super Circuit for the Game Boy Advance in the US.
Trivia: Who is Ramona’s seventh (and final) evil ex in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World? (Email chris-sports@cynopsis.com with your answer and be sure to include your name, company and city.)
Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: Name the character pictured last week. Answer: Blanka. Kudos: Julie Reuter/Adelaide; Rob Casalaina-ITN/NY; Danny Araque/NY; Lorin Halpert-Barcraft United/Toronto; Ross Grimes-Starcom/Chicago; Jason Morrow/Houston; Matthew Mancinelli-Mance Media, 4KUNIVERSE/LA; Josh Baird-FOX Sports/LA; Nate Eckman-Ultimate Media Ventures/LA; Carleton Curtis-Red Bull Media House/Santa Monica.
Later — Chris
Chris Pursell for Cynopsis | eSports @VegasandVine
08.04.16
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The post 08/11/16: Neo’s new path; eGames gets Smashed; Geoff Keighley’s big honor appeared first on Cynopsis Media.