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Pro Video Game Leagues — Another Economic Casualty
Posted by
Soulskill
on Thu Apr 02, 2009 01:20 PM
from the quake-me dept.
from the quake-me dept.
Anonymusing writes "Not long ago, professional video gamer Emmanuel Rodriguez earned a base $30K salary plus prize winnings in the Championship Gaming Series. However, with the economy suffering, sponsors like DirecTV and News Corporation are backing out, leaving Rodriguez with a more typical job for a 23-year-old: store clerk. After the demise of the CPL and the Championship Gaming Series last year, the only major pro gamer league left is Major League Gaming, though it expects to turn a profit this year — some of its players earn more than six figures from the $1 million in prizes given throughout the season, while others are putting off college to work on their gaming careers."
A recent story in the LA Times discusses how the games industry slow-down is hitting game developers hard as well. Conversely, the used game market is seeing significant growth — it'll be interesting to see what publishers learn from this.
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Does Professional Gaming Have a Future? 116 comments
mr_sifter writes "Three years ago, celebrity gamers such as Fatal1ty were bagging millions in prizes, and TV channels were queuing up to broadcast games on TV. Professional gaming looked set for the big time. It never happened, and in the current economic crisis, sponsors and media organizations are cutting costs, resulting in the closure of many pro gaming competitions (as we recently discussed) and a down-scaling in prize money. This feature looks at whether pro gaming can bounce back, and whether it will always be a PC sport, or if pro gaming on consoles is the future."
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What will they learn? (Score:5, Insightful)
"The used game market is canibalizing our sales, they must be stopped!"
Re:What will they learn? (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Times have changed, but not prices (Score:3, Insightful)
Damn. I used up my mod points already. You make a good point which companies are aware of, they're just too greedy to change. We're paying prices which have been the same for ages, from the days when gaming was a niche hobby and there were fewer copies of games created (which by the magic of supply and demand means they were probably more expensive to make). I remember eagerly shelling out $80 CAD for the first Dark Forces PC game the day it was released. That was unusual - a new release price was about $60
Re:Times have changed, but not prices (Score:4, Insightful)
Which is actually a pretty good deal considering how other prices have risen in the same time frame, including the cost to develop a game.
Why *should* they change? Demand for games is largely (though not completely) inelastic - dropping the price doesn't result in an equivalent increase in sales.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Nintendo games costing about $50 (an AWFUL lot of money in the late 1980s)
somebody else that was young back then man up with me and admit to going into your room and crying when you bought a new nintendo game and then slowly...horribly...realized that it sucked after 20 minutes or so of playing it. $50 was a LOT of money for me to come up with then, and my parents were only gonna buy me 2, maybe 3 games a year.
(dana carvey grumpy old man voice) and we played it anyway! we liked that it sucked!(/dcgomv)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Supply and demand is an economic concept, capitalism and communism are different methods to deal with it.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:What will they learn? (Score:4, Insightful)
The White House *has* actually considered capping CEO pay in *all* publically held companies. I don't know how seriously this was considered, but the GPP isn't just crazy. I was quite surprised at how seriously the "let's make veterans pay for medical care for their war wounds, that will save money!" idea was taken by the current administration (with even Pelosi roundly criticizing it), so nothing would surprise me.
Parent
My 3 guesses (Score:4, Insightful)
Conversely, the used game market is seeing significant growth -- it'll be interesting to see what publishers learn from this.
1. That future games will be a 2Mb executable that downloads all the game content.
2. They need to charge more for games
3. Piracy is to blame.
Pizza always tastes better the next day too (Score:5, Funny)
Conversely, the used game market is seeing significant growth -- it'll be interesting to see what publishers learn from this.
Clearly they need to go straight to the "used" market. It's like "straight to DVD" in movies.
if only... (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
what will publishers learn (Score:5, Funny)
used game market is seeing significant growth -- it'll be interesting to see what publishers learn from this.
Ooo oo oo, I know, pick me! Publishers will learn that they should publish used games! ... hm, wait...
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
No, what they'll learn is to install even more offensive DRM that prevents you from reselling your game, so they can sell more new copies.
oh wait they're already starting to do that aren't they?
Curtain call (Score:2)
Stories like this make me feel *OLD*.
Take my lawn.
Sports Celebrities (Score:4, Insightful)
He's just a sports celebrity. That's all. You don't hear anyone crying because nobody can get sponsors for curling, do you?
If people wanted to watch other people play video games, the economy would have very little effect on his life.
Though, honestly, I've never been sure why people want to watch other people play any other sport, either.
Obligatory Penny Arcade Comic (Score:4, Funny)
Ad Infinitum [penny-arcade.com].
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Actually, the PA comic this made me think of was this. [penny-arcade.com]
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
It's the same reason as why the ancient Romans liked to watch gladiators do battle.
When you watch a sports team play, you are watching the fruits of countless hours of training and practice being put into use. That kind of dedication simultaneously generates awe, wonder, and respect, deservedly, I would say. And it may have been among your many unrealized childhood ambitions to do what they are doing now, or it may be one of your current fantasies, but that bit of empathy that every person has at least a li
Re:Sports Celebrities (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
what publishers learn from this (Score:4, Insightful)
[...] Conversely, the used game market is seeing significant growth â" it'll be interesting to see what publishers learn from this.
That DRM is good and they should disallow the selling of used games.
What? they were supposed to learn that their bussiness model can be better? that most new games cost way too much? that is not required to have a great studio spending millions of dollars to make a great game (World of Goo comes to mind, their "studio" was pretty much any coffe shop with free wi-fi)?
I may be wrong...
Ob (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
We kan haz baylowt?
G@m3rz b@yl0wt b|ll p@ss3d by cash4gold.com
What they'll learn? (Score:4, Insightful)
Perhaps that in a recession people cut back on luxuries, and that a computer game is less important than a mortgage repayment.
No surprises there (Score:3, Insightful)
The way to keep people interested is to involve them. Simply presenting video gaming in the same manner as a football match isn't really enough.
Re:No surprises there (Score:5, Informative)
You must be an expert, because the users, more than 200.000 unique a month, on my site that is dedicated to broadcasting Counter-Strike matches, sure beg to differ with your conclusion..
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Well since you ask, http://www.hltv.org/ [hltv.org] - I do believe my servers will keep up just fine though.. :)
But note that you cannot watch matches without having Counter-Strike installed, which in turn makes the spectator numbers even more impressive if you ask me..
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
No, it only makes your spectators a subset of the millions of CounterStrike players.
Yes, but it means that people are watching CounterStrike precisely at a time & place when they could instead be playing CounterStrike. So it's not like people watching while unable to play. Thus, there exist at least some conditions under which it is more interesting to watch good CS players than playing CS oneself.
I beg to differ (Score:3, Interesting)
Recession proof? (Score:2, Troll)
You mean video game playing adult isn't a recession proof job? Who woulda thunk that?!
Pro-Video Gamer??? (Score:2)
The publishers didn't much care. (Score:2)
For the most part the pro-gaming leagues were set up by random entrepreneurs, not game publishers. Yes, they represented publicity. But the jury is still very much out on whether people will pay to watch other people play video games. They do in Korea, for sure, but not in the USA. So it was never obvious that the PR they represented was really worth the expense of running them. That's why it wasn't the publishers that set them up.
Re:The publishers didn't much care. (Score:5, Insightful)
If it didn't pay for itself, you weren't a pro. That's not meant as a slam, just a definition.
Parent
A little help (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Well, it's kind of like cycling. (Score:2)
They don't have a mass audience.
There are millions of people that will watch a game of football, baseball, basketball or soccer (especially soccer) on a (n>inf)" widescreen plasma LCD TV (or any TV, really) at home, or in the pub/bar, supermarket, while shopping, etc. I postulate that a reason for this is that the action and "spirit" of each sport caters to dif
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
(re: Pizza hut advertising on a NASA rocket http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=2202 [spaceref.com] [spaceref.com])
Off topic to the article, but to your point about sponsors... KFC is actually spending money to fill pot holes and spray-paint their logo on them [chicagotribune.com]. Complete with Col. Sanders standing around with a bright green jacket.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
You do know that IN THE BEGINNING we used to stack quarters on the machines and wait our turn. If some bastard was really good he could keep the crowd waiting until people started to give up and pick up the quarters and leave.
Damn, that used to feel good! :)
Oh, wait, you wanted to know if I enjoyed watching other people play.
The answer is Hell, yes! How do you think I ever learned to play the original Street Fighter? You remember, the on
XPL Is Starting... (Score:2)
Short career (Score:4, Funny)
Digital download FTW! (Score:5, Interesting)
If the retailers aren't careful, they'll kill off their own source of supply. Used games are a big win for them and a big win for the consumer, and a big loss for the publishers. If the retailers drive the publishers to digital distribution ONLY, they won't have anything left to sell.
You'll notice that major bookstores don't sell used books, only new ones.
Within 20 years games may become a service like cable TV, not a product you buy and take home.
WSV (Score:5, Funny)
I wonder if I can start a professional World's Smallest Violin league...
Developing story (Score:5, Funny)
In light of this news EA Sports has decided to cancel their new game "Major League Gaming - The Game 2K9".
duh (Score:2)
Conversely, the used game market is seeing significant growth â" it'll be interesting to see what publishers learn from this.
Quit making the same games as each other and quit making so many damned sequels and then maybe people will see value in what you produce.
What they'll learn? (Score:2)
They'll probably learn nothing.
But they'll probably add more DRM in the future, lobby harder, and generally give us less while attempting to charge more.
Seems to be their typical reaction to any type of change or encroachment on their nearly obsolete business models. While I don't believe hard copy game selling will ever die as long as we have walmart, it's not a market that is growing as fast as digital delivery.
Bail out this industry (Score:2)
The professional video gaming industry is part of the fabric of our country. It has become too important to fail.
I think they deserve a bailout.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not sure why watching someone excel in one skill, be it running or playing chess, is more interesting than watching someone excel at another. Unless you believe that button pressing is intrinsically non-skilful (but isn't your job just pressing buttons in the correct order to produce games?) People watch professional snooker or darts, and they're really just tests of your hand-to-eye co-ordination and ability to approximate trigonometry; what's different about a computer game, other than the fact that
Could be worse. Could be poker (Score:3, Insightful)
Watching people play cards is now a televised "sport".
Maybe if people played video games for money....