Competitive gaming is growing rapidly, and publishers are starting to make moves to leverage that potential.
[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":712982,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"games,","session":"A"}']Yesterday, StarCraft II publisher Blizzard purchased the assets and technology of IGN’s Pro League competitive gaming organization. Blizzard also hired around two dozen former IPL staff to form the foundation of its e-sports team. This is part of a recent push by Blizzard to bring the StarCraft II competitive landscape more under its control.
“This new team will help us to further develop the rich media experiences that extend the fun and engagement of our games online,” Blizzard executive vice president of publishing Itzik Ben-Bassat said in a statement. “This is a team of passionate gamers with a proven track record, and we’re looking forward to now leveraging their expertise and technology to support a variety of online efforts.”
IGN’s new owner Ziff Davis was eager to shed the IPL despite its massive traffic-producing events, according to a GameSpot interview with IGN co-founder Peer Schneider. Ziff apparently did
With this purchase, the IPL brand is now dead. Blizzard is likely to integrate the acquired technology into its recently revamped World Championship Series.
In early March, Blizzard president Mike Morhaime spoke about his frustration with the current loose e-sports structure surrounding its real-time strategy game.
“We found that maybe there’s a little too much going on,” Morhaime told a crowd at MIT. “We’ve run into scheduling conflicts where players that you would expect to be at some of the major events couldn’t because they had other obligations. That’s something we’d really like to address this year.”
With its World Championship Series, Blizzard is following a path well tread by one of the most successful e-sports developers, Riot Games.
Riot has a firm grip on the competitive gaming scene for its popular League of Legends title. As a result, the League Championship Series is one of the biggest draws in e-sports.
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Blizzard still has one of the most popular and important e-sports games, but it just hasn’t leveraged that popularity into a marketing and competitive juggernaut the way Riot has with LOL.
All of its recent moves suggests that Blizzard is serious about better managing the property.