It’s interesting that the conglomerate didn’t decide to roll with EA eSports, EA Sports eSports or something cheeky like EAsPorts (I’m so sorry). Either way, EA’s expanding their eSports reach — and they’ve picked a fairly prominent executive to head up the division.
The news was announced by EA chief executive Andrew Wilson, and the division will be headed up by the company’s chief operating officer, Peter Moore. Wilson nominated FIFA, Madden, NFL and Battlefield as four titles in announcing the news on the company’s website, although the division will not be limited to running events for just those franchises.
Called the Competitive Gaming Division, the unit will concentrate on community building, “highly engaging competitive experiences” with EA titles, and developing “live events and broadcasting that bring the spectacle of competition to millions of people around the world”.
The last part is perhaps the most intriguing. eSports is making a significant effort to expand its presence across traditional broadcast channels, with ESPN, the Turner Legaue, Red Bull and others exploring various options for televising video game competitions.
Australia has enjoyed an expansion of competitive gaming on broadcast channels of its own this year, with FOX Sports broadcasting the Crown Invitational Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament and FIFA 15 earlier this year.
Another element of intrigue will be the potential changes this could have for the Battlefield franchise. The first-person shooter has always been attuned to some level of competitive play, but a variety of elements — the player counts, map sizes, spectator functions, and the game’s poor launch in 2013 — have always prevented it from enjoying the same success in eSports as Call of Duty or Counter-Strike.
Comments
8 responses to “EA Expands eSports Estate, Calls It Competitive Gaming Instead”
Ladies and gentlemen, Satan personified, as seen above.
“Competitive Gaming”?
What about my validation as an elite athlete!?
I’M AN E-SPORTS ATHLETE GODDAM IT!!!!
Finally we can bring Competitive Gaming and combine it with Competitive Eating!
They should just call it “Sports For Fat People” and be done with it. It can go on TV along with the darts, snooker and poker.
Sigh, EA cant do anything without a cash grab and ripping people off. You dont get voted the worse company of the year ( in the last 5 years )for nothing. Could be wrong but i think it was more than once.
I think they “won”, if you want to call it that, over the Mass Effect ending.
They were voted Americas worst company over banks, weapons manufacturers, airlines, petroleum companies (including one that had a pretty bad oil spill), and mining concerns.
Much though they are maligned around the internet, they’re probably not even the worst publisher in gaming… Activision are probably more evil, just better at being quiet about it.
In terms of customer service Origin is a damn joy to deal with compared to Valve.
clearly the right name for esports is DIGITAL SPORTS.
Did we ever figure out how Andrew Wilson got the top job at EA?
He seemed to come from nowhere to running the whole enterprise.
Did the EA Sports position give him enough clout to end up in charge after Riccitello left, and if so… how much bloody money does that division make them?
They did call it
EA SPORTS ITS IN THE GAME!!!