And the international
Low for the amount of money that´s being spent. That´s what seems disproportionate.
Low for the amount of money that´s being spent. That´s what seems disproportionate.
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Kotaku - As esports grows, experts fear it's a bubble ready to pop.
- Thread starter The_R3medy
- Start date
Re-reading it, one bit ticks me off:
That is the VP of Esports for the HoustonRockets & ClutchGaming, if you ever wonder why Esports and Competitive gaming treats women like s*** and in some cases, openly allows sexism and harassment, it's because the people in charge think we don't exist... *sighs*
That is the VP of Esports for the HoustonRockets & ClutchGaming, if you ever wonder why Esports and Competitive gaming treats women like s*** and in some cases, openly allows sexism and harassment, it's because the people in charge think we don't exist... *sighs*
seems like people have been throwing money at e-sports for the longest because it will eventually make money but that day doesn't seem like it's going to be here anytime soon. the best strategy seems to be building an esports league and then selling it to some corporation looking to diversify and let them take the bath.
The concept of e "sports" has always been one that doesn't appeal to me and comes off as something you couldn't pay me to be interested in. I wouldn't miss it and the crowd that comes along with e "sports" if the bubble does indeed pop.
I don't think he's saying that people in other demographics don't exist. It's just known that for whatever reason, that particular demographic is the most valuable one to advertise to so they don't have to spend money trying to figure out how to target it.
Quotes I found interesting:
Very interesting article from Kotaku about the esports industry and the potential bubble its facing. Tldr;
- esports teams are massively unprofitable
- industry growth is overinflated when reported by analyst groups like NewZoo
- Big publisher leagues like LCS and OWL(maybe?) are unprofitable.
- The viewership statistics published by Riot and other groups are basically bullshit
- Websites like curse use hidden embedded streams in their gaming wiki pages to inflate twitch viewership statistics. The article claims they charge 15000 an hour to inflate stream viewership and have done so in PubG, Tekken, Overwatch, and other games.
- Finally, stream influencers are short-circuiting esports growth, with players like tfue and ninja able to grab 200k concurrent viewers at a time (bigger than a lot of esports tournaments)
If any of you were around for CGS back in 2007, you'll know that esports has had some crazy bubbles before. Are we heading towards another one? I'm not a VC but it's pretty hard for me to imagine that a COD esports franchise spot is worth 60 million.
I think unnatural eSport growth will bust in the next years. (meaning: big publishers pushing for esport when the game hasn't even proven itself or there are not big viewer numbers.
eSport "from the bottom" will still be profitable (a game gets popular and eSport grew from the players and not from the publisher)
eSport "from the bottom" will still be profitable (a game gets popular and eSport grew from the players and not from the publisher)
Not a matter of if, but when.
Gonna read through this later during my lunch break, it was pointed out to me on Twitter by some FGC members but then I lost the link.
Gonna read through this later during my lunch break, it was pointed out to me on Twitter by some FGC members but then I lost the link.
I've always figured the push for esports was too much to soon. It didn't naturally get to the point it's at now whatsoever. These are the repercussions of greedy companies trying to force it.
Yeah, Valve has a really hands off approach (more so with CS than DOTA2, cause of the international) and let external companies organize and invest in tournaments.
I think this also let's it get a more natural growth. CSGO viewership seems legitimate to me, personally speaking.
I'm not sure that streaming is necessarily a bubble. At the very least, the subscriptions and donations they receive arent. Streaming is here to stay.
Yeah - its important to note that people have been paying CS and Dota players to play videogames for close to 15 years now.
the OG:
Yeah, its consistent. Even in 2006-2007 there were 40-50k people watching CS through in-game spectating and listening to casters on shoutcasting radio sites (no streaming back then).
I've come to respect valve's hands off approach to their esports.
What's interesting is if you compare OWL to other esport events viewers. Here's a League of Legends broadcast and you notice how viewers are constantly leaving as games end and it goes to analysis desk, commercial breaks or viewers are only showing up for their favourite team.
Meanwhile here is OWL which somehow manages to maintain a flatline for a 7-hour broadcast.
Damn... that's actually a really interesting graph and backs up what the article was saying about embeds.
This is super interesting. Nice digging!What's interesting is if you compare OWL to other esport events viewers. Here's a League of Legends broadcast and you notice how viewers are constantly leaving as games end and it goes to analysis desk, commercial breaks or viewers are only showing up for their favourite team.
Meanwhile here is OWL which somehow manages to maintain a flatline for a 7-hour broadcast.
So I'm watching Narcos right now and Googled Pablo Escobar.
I clicked a link and this is one hell of a coincidence but...
Faker is the only confirmed one that I can think of. Maybe Doublelift but I'd have no idea.
I really doubt it, it would only increase with the new generations since most of the new generations relaying a lot on watching pros playing games and those kids love it when their favorite pro compete on main tournaments. This shit will only grow from here, but sure it won't be one game. Esport bubble will bounce from game to game.
I don't think pro gaming as a whole will go anywhere, just as pro sports conceptually won't go anywhere. But there is a sports media bubble waiting to burst. The sports leagues are all in bed with cable companies to make revenue off of airing actual events, but cable subscriptions are only decreasing.
I think this bubble is a lot like that one. The events aren't going to go away, but there will be casualties (leagues merging, sponsorship changes, broadcast rights, etc)
Btw I see a lot of confusion in here about bubbles. Things can still be popular if a bubble bursts. Housing and property investment didn't go away after the housing bubble burst, it came back stronger than ever. There were survivors of the dot com crash, and they have the industry by the throat now. Bubble bursting in this context will mean esports is going to change A LOT over the coming years as it grows, as is to be expected.
The only ones I see surviving are the FGC, LoL, Dota2 and CSGO.
Overwatch League and CoD are going to be in big trouble soon.
Overwatch League and CoD are going to be in big trouble soon.
People say this about OWL, but I see it surviving. OW has actually garnered an intensely loyal fanbase that's not just dedicated to the game, that would be typical, but to the mythos itself. I see it continuing well beyond any foreseen collapse that people have wrought. At worst, It will cocoon into what other legacy Blizzard games have become like SC2 and WC3.
Individual games might pop but esport as a whole will still be around as long as gaming is relevant and the viewership is there . People can actually watch CS:Go tournament so there should be no worry on the lack of interest :P
The move towards "influencers" in advertising is depressing and incredibly toxic to the video game community in the long run.
It's also remarkably shortsighted; countless games are trying to court the same few people and inevitably those people will only go for whatever generates the most views.
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I've actually been watching fewer and fewer esports tournaments the bigger they've gotten. Maybe not intentionally... but for me it's been more fun to watch the smaller scene stuff. For example, Link to the Past Randomizer has a daily race. Final Fantasy 4 Free Enterprise has monday community races as well. Both of these also have 'season' long tournaments that are a blast to watch and communicate with the runners in their discords and stuff.
It's more personal, it's more involved. The communities are smaller and more tightknit, but also very welcoming to new comers. I'll never be a top randomizer runner, but the fact that I can actually get some one on one discussions with these people means more to me.
It's more personal, it's more involved. The communities are smaller and more tightknit, but also very welcoming to new comers. I'll never be a top randomizer runner, but the fact that I can actually get some one on one discussions with these people means more to me.
The one benefit over the others that the FGC has is that it's always been self sustaining and grassroots. It won't go anywhere.
Starcraft: BW and SC2 likely aren't going anywhere unless Blizzard goes crazy. Scene is actually growing again and the amount of content out there is insane. From like 14-15 there was an exodus of teams with ProLeague shutting down in 2016. Players with teams has been increasing and new leagues are popping up with prize pools and viewership increasing again.
ESPN airing Esports never made sense to me, How big could the demographic of people be who want to watch esports but have not cut the cable cord?
In some sense the grassroots stuff is not really as vulnerable to the bubble, because it's not being propped up by the bubble. Grassroots scenes will (unfortunately) suffer *some* collateral damage if/when the bubble pops, since e-sports orgs won't be throwing (as much?) money their way -- but they aren't getting much from e-sports orgs to begin with, relatively speaking.
The real question is what happens when the clock hits midnight for the e-sports that are clearly unsustainable marketing stunts