E-Sports is more than a community of gamers that like to compete against other gamers; there is a lot of money floating around, and it has become a business similar to how other sports are a business. The players and organizations might benefit, but computer hardware manufacturing companies like nVidia benefit greatly as well, if not more so.
Video Games in Television and Film
Games based on television shows or movies and vice versa are a great way to milk all the money out of a franchise as possible. Tomb Raider as a video game franchise is one of the best selling video game series of all tim. The original Tomb Raider was one of the first games to be released on the PlayStation, so it is partly responsible for the console's success. Because of that popularity, the movie had an instant fan base. The appeal of a female Indiana Jones also helped with its popularity. Resident Evil is another example of this. The movie and game franchises of Resident Evil each have several installments that people have enjoyed over the years. Other than that, movies based on games have largely been a failure. Super Mario Bros. may have been a great game, but it translated to one of the worst movies ever.
The reverse is also true. There are many video games released simultaneously with movies to simply try to make as much money as possible. However, the quality of these games seems to be something the game creators forget about, as they never seem to live up to the movies. I honestly can't think of a single game based on a movie or television show that is good. All I can think about are the extremely vulgar reviews by the Angry Video Game Nerd.
No matter how bad these games or movies based on each other are, they somewhat boost the economy. The people that work on these projects, theaters that sell tickets, and game stores that sell games all benefit from these mostly bad projects. Reputations may be ruined, producers might lose money, but for the most part they keep money moving.
Hardware Manufacturers
There is no doubt there are companies that have benefited from e-Sports being as popular as it is. Companies like SteelSeries and Razer that make gamer specific mice, headphones, keyboards, and mousepads wouldn't have a market without e-Sports. They make high quality products for gamers that require the best peripherals possible.
Video card companies have also benefited, not only from advancing computer game graphics, but also gamers that want the most powerful computer as possible. Companies like nVidia and ATI have continued to manufacture video cards tailored for gamers for years. Not only do they manufacture these great pieces of hardware for gamers worldwide, they also sponsor professional video game organizations. They allow organizations to travel around the world to compete.
Tournaments
Video game tournaments like the CPL need an area large enough to hold hundreds of gamers and computers, and these areas are typically in the bottom of hotels. These tournaments make a lot of money for hotels. Not only does the tournament holder have to rent out the space, but gamers usually stay at the hotel, so the hotel gets money for rooms, food, and drinks.
The Electronic Sports Entertainment Association is run by a few business minded people that have a passion for the advancement of e-Sports. It is now the number one place to go for competitive Counter-Strike in the United States. They charge about five dollars per month for membership, and about six dollars to play in their league per season. These guys are probably making a lot of money from running the league, but they continue to improve their league and everything they do for Counter-Strike and e-Sports in general.
References:
Weprin, Alex (2010). Syfy Expanding Video-Game Business. Broadcasting & Cable, 140(17), 23. Retrieved from Communication & Mass Media Complete database.
No comments:
Post a Comment