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WSVG Explains Event Closure

Posted by Zonk on Fri Sep 14, 2007 12:58 PM
from the yeah-that-was-kinda-quick dept.
Media Television Entertainment Games
GameDaily had a chance to talk with Matt Ringel, the president of Games Media Properties, the company formerly sponsoring the World Series of Video Games. Matt and the site work through why the cancellation was so sudden, and what lead to the event's nixing. "It was a combination of factors. There are indeed a number of organizers competing at a high level, and advertising in the whole space has been a bit slow -- in part because advertisers are trying to decipher the relative merits and differences among the various organizations. Meanwhile, Games Media Properties, parent company of the WSVG, has an online business that is doing well. As appealing as competitive gaming will become in the future, the company wanted to put all [its] focus on the business that is able to perform today."
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[+] World Series of Video Games Cancelled 42 comments
Goobergunch writes "The official site for the World Series of Videogames is now indicating that the WSVG, including planned events in Los Angeles, London and Sweden, has been cancelled. The WSVG included competitions for Guitar Hero II, Quake 4, World of Warcraft Arena, as well as Counter-Strike and Warcraft III. From the announcement: 'The continuing challenges of securing adequate revenues to sustain the production of the WSVG's large scale events and television programming, in a very crowded field of competitive gaming leagues, has prompted us to re-evaluate our direction as an organization. Unfortunately, the decision is to cancel the remainder of the WSVG season, as we shift our focus solely to growing our online advertising network of websites, which currently reach seven million users each month. '"
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      • I can't imagine why ./ would be so unappreciative of a fine contributor such as yourself. Shame on all of us.

  • in part because... (Score:3, Funny)

    by weirdcrashingnoises (1151951) on Friday September 14 2007, @01:07PM (#20606081) Journal
    advertisers are trying to decipher the relative merits and differences among the various organizations

    riiiight.... because various organizations like to encrypt their merits and differences as part of a cat-and-mouse game that they play with advertisers.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by MarkAyen (726688)
      More likely because it's hard to separate the valid claims put forth by the competing organizers from the bullshit. And also not worth the effort. How many viewers actually watch these things on TV... or pay to watch them live? I'm a huge gamer and I don't watch (or have any interest in) professional gaming. If I've got a couple of spare hours, I'd rather play videogames than watch someone else play them.
      • "I'd rather play videogames than watch someone else play them."

        The truth of the matter is, video games CAN be very enjoyable to watch. I used to think the same thing but then after watching a few replays of friends from clan leagues, etc, it can be pretty exciting and tense. As long as the camera angles are done right and also depending on the game. I used to watch Quake 3 arena matches via a mod I forget which it was (Orange smoothie?) and the way the camera's were setup allowed you to observe the inter
        • I definitely agree. Just recently there was an EVE online tournament and I really took to watching all the matches, partly because it is very interesting if you are into the game yourself. I'm sure many of the people who watch regular sports also play those sports themselves and this is part of the appeal for them. At least so it seems to me.
    • I suspect the real problem lies with the organizations.

      Advertiser: We're really interested in sponsoring a competitive gaming league. Why should we sponsor yours instead one of these other six?
      WGL: Umm... What do you mean?
      Advertiser: Well. What makes you different? What sets you appart?
      WGL: Well... Uh... Umm...

  • Rats! (Score:3, Funny)

    by careykohl (682513) on Friday September 14 2007, @01:33PM (#20606423)
    Does this mean I'm going to have to stop playing video games and get a real job after all?
    All that training for nothing!
  • Maybe it's because their events are failing. At the recent FanExpo in Toronto, both the WCG and the WSVG had events. While the WSVG had ten times the budget of the WCG (and managed to steal most of the sponsors), it didn't end up nearly as popular as the WCG's event.

    So, if the WCG can produce much better RoI on a significantly smaller budget, what does that say about the WSVG?

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