Blizzard Buys IPL

[CrimsonShadow]

This is a pretty major acquisition. Apparently the plan is for Blizzard to fold the assets into its own eSports promotion, rather than to continue to operate IPL. This means that they're serious about kicking their esports prowess up a notch, and that the entire sport will likely rev up even more as Blizzard throws their full weight into supporting the WCS.

More info here: http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/04/08/blizzard-buys-ign-pro-league

It also unfortunately leaves a bit of fighting games void; will someone step up to fill it?

 

[FrothyOmen]

NICE
Thank you based Blizzard

 

[Dizzy]

This likely eliminates the chance of FGs at IPL in the future though

 

[CrimsonShadow]

GGA Dizzy yeah -- eSports is growing in a major way, but it's trying to leave fighting games behind. I feel like it's up to us to help take promotion of our games to the next level. Always easier said than done, though. I'm going to help where I can.

It's be cool to see Injustice back at the Spring MLG in june; but as always, MLG is mum on such things.

 

[FrothyOmen]

This likely eliminates the chance of FGs at IPL in the future though

IPL was dead anyways. I'm not sure that the FGC as a whole has enough public interest to even be considered by people wanting to throw IPL-tier cash at it. You would think that Fighting Games would be really easy for outsiders to watch, but man oh man it's almost as bad as SC2 or LoL/DotA.

This is extremely wishful thinking, but if Injustice turns out to be a great game, I wonder how much of a cash cow it could become? It visually simplifies things a lot while (seemingly) retaining lots of depth for high-level competition. People can identify with these popular superheroes much like they will with Marvel, except in Injustice you can actually tell what's going on and it's not a mess of fireballs and flashes everywhere that nobody but FGC can follow coherently.

 

[CrimsonShadow]

I think Injustice has major potential, but we need to step our promotional game up. Players need to get serious about attracting sponsors and getting their storylines out to the world. Event organizers need to get serious about spreading the word to people outside of the hardcore FGC.

When a few million people buy these games, there's potential to have a much bigger audience. But someone has to get the word out.

 

[Dizzy]

Yeah, how FGs don't have as good pull as other genres to draw in new/casual viewers. It is seemingly easier to follow to a layperson as its "these two guys attack each other til one wins" then various gametypes in FPSes and the clusterfuck that is MOBAs and SC2 to people who don't know anything about them.

That is what made me think it has less to do with FGs and more to do with things surrounding it such as the community making the games more accessible with content for newbies and it being a totally different attitude in the FGC. Esports games have dedicated commentators, people who made loads of content, etc. FGC pales in comparison in these regards.

 

[FrothyOmen]

Yeah, I've always wanted to do a lot of what the people in other genres do for the FGC, particularly MK9 and now Injustice. I wanna have podcasts, I want to make tutorial videos, I want to start a web series that is a direct copy of Sean Plott's "Day[9] Daily" but for MK/Injustice. However I'm both a poor college student and a scrub, so buying capture cards/sreaming equipment as well as an entire new computer to handle this stuff is out of the question for me at this point in time.

I wish that somebody would throw money at me and let me make shit lol. If anyone wants to do it, it's gotta be done right... low quality = low viewer counts etc.

I'd also love to travel to tourneys just to be a dedicated commentator, similar to what James Chen and that other guy (is it bad i forget his name? lol) do for Street Fighter and Marvel. We need some guys who will do that, Tom Brady would be an excellent choice for that.

So much want, so few people willing/able to make stuff like this happen. ;_;

Maybe I need to take Sean's #1 advice and "just go fucking do it"