This Week In The Business: The End Of Esports’ Innocence

“Apparel is an essential part of running an esports team. That side of the business has to work for the rest to work.” — Erik Londré, head of events and influencers for esports team Fnatic, which just opened its own pop-up retail store in Shoreditch to sell merchandise and host events.

Clinton “Fear” Loomis and Syed “SumaiL” Hassan of Evil Geniuses in a commercial for SteelSeries.

STAT | $US350 ($479) million — The minimum amount of money MLB Advanced Media will pay Riot Games for the monetisation and commercialisation rights to League of Legends esports broadcasts in a deal that goes through the 2023 League of Legends season.

STAT | 24 per cent — The year-over-year decrease in US gaming revenues for November. Hardware in particular was down 35 per cent since last November as the average selling price of PS4 and Xbox One systems dropped significantly.

QUOTE | “The AAA boxed product is just not a welcome home for independent developers. It’s now a nearly impossible proposition, actually. The major publishers out there are spending [over] $US100 ($137) million on developing the next iteration of a franchise… and at the same time, they are increasingly hesitant to spend on new IP.” — Turtle Rock Studios president and GM Steve Goldstein shares the company’s big takeaway from its experience working on Evolve.

QUOTE | “I believe that a lot of moves Nintendo is making right now, such as bringing Mario to mobile and releasing the NES Classic, are focused on increasing overall Nintendo brand equity and buzz before the launch of the Switch than revenue generation.” — EEDAR VP of Insights Patrick Walker suggests that Nintendo’s recent efforts are designed to benefit its next console launch as much as to succeed on their own.

QUOTE | “We can assure you this was a hard decision for everyone. Our team has so much combined Nintendo heritage and we’re huge Nintendo fans as individuals.” — Playtonic studio head Gavin Price addresses why the company’s Kickstarted platformer Yooka-Laylee won’t be coming to the Wii U, the most requested platform for the project.

STAT | Nearly 50 per cent — The percentage of Xbox One owners who have used the system’s backwards compatibility feature, according to Microsoft’s Phil Spencer.

QUOTE | “If you’re bored of the game then just stop playing it.” — Facepunch Studios founder Garry Newman thinks the Early Access hit Rust has hit a rut, and the best way out is for unsatisfied long-time players to step away.

STAT | $US50 ($68) million — The total investment VR studio and Raw Data creator Survios received across two recent rounds of funding, the latter of which was led by media giant Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

QUOTE | “You will never see screenshots where players are hunting Cecil the Lion. That’s not the type of game this is.” — Avalanche Studios CEO Pim Holfve explains how the company is pushing for an ethical approach to hunting with the Hunter: Call of the Wild.

QUOTE | “I think Western brands, especially American brands, play a very big role in the Chinese market. Because China is more and more open, and the economy is continuously booming up, the Chinese definitely have a very strong and bigger and bigger appetite for Western content.” — CMGE director of business development for North America Ringo Zhu discusses the company’s strategy of licensing Western IP to make original games for the Chinese market, like Assassin’s Creed: Blood Sail.