Will SC2 become Blizzard's new "Cash Cow"? EvE Butterfly Effect video, oh, and HoN keys(lol)

As always, this is taken from my site: http://stratstrats.com

So everyone knows about the Starcraft progaming world in Korea, and most people enjoy watching replays and VODs, so long as the commentators are good. There are even several people who have tried to bring Starcraft from Korea to other parts of the world. Tasteless, who is probably the most well known English commentator for Starcraft, has done immense work in bringing Starcraft to the United States. According to GOMTV(who Tasteless now works for), over 1 million viewers watched the 2008 Star Invitational, and the Averatec-Intel Classic tournaments with English commentary. So, if Starcraft is growing in popularity over here, why has it not become more popular as an E-Sport? Just from asking around, it seems that the general answer from most people is, "It's such an old game, I would rather wait for SC2 than get involved with the first one this late." Which, to me, is a valid answer. What major company in the United States wants to start sponsoring players, as well as the tournaments for an 11 year old game?


The Arrival: So now the question arises, when SC2 finally gets here, what will happen? I have a feeling that this game will take off like no other game that has ever been released. I can easily see it shattering all records for amount of copies sold worldwide in the first week. But not only take off in terms of people buying it, but also in terms of E-Sport recognition. Remember when Counter Strike: Source was released, and due to bugs and such, many teams did not want to make the move from 1.6, so teams were paid loads of money to do so? I believe the same thing will happen with SC2. It will not matter if the game is grossly imbalanced on released day, full of bugs, and whatever else, I think companies are going to pay big bucks for all the major Starcraft teams to make the move to SC2. I also strongly believe that many major companies in the US are eagerly waiting for the release of this game as well, to jump on board and start sponsoring tournaments, and teams. And yes, I think the same thing will happen in Europe.


Could this be the Game that brings E-Sports to the U.S?: I honestly believe it will be. Just ask around your group of friends that enjoy PC gaming, which game they are looking forward to the most. Maybe not yours, but probably 8 out of 10 of my friends that game, say they are getting SC2, and probably half of those want to play it competitively. I believe this game could easily change the way America sees gaming, and perhaps take us down the same road that Korea is on. Because face it, people enjoy watching WoW tournaments, but it is not viewer friendly to people who have never played. Remember at Blizzcon in 2007 when Tasteless was the commentator for Starcraft? I can remember not knowing hardly anything about the game, but those SC matches were ten times more entertaining to watch than the WoW matches. I think as long as these tournaments hire the right commentators, Starcraft could easily become the most watched E-Sport in the U.S.


The Cash Cow: So picture this: within the first 6 months of release, SC2 has taken the E-Sport scene by storm. There are major tournaments being hosted all around the world, big brand names sponsoring the best teams from each country, and millions of players competing for a top spot on the Battle.net ladder. Will all of this be enough to dethrone WoW as the king of Blizzard's income? I have a feeling most of the WoW sponsored teams and tournaments will be dropped once this happens, and replaced with SC2 teams. Sure there will not be the monthly fees that have given Blizzard, according to a report "...$400 million worth of Activision Blizzard's earnings per share." (link) But I think with all the copies sold, then companies paying for sponsorship and advertisement, Blizzard is set to make a great deal of money off of this game. We will have to see though, I suppose.



EvE: Butterfly Effect Video: Anyways, that is all I have about that, and to change the tone a bit, I would like to link this incredible advertisement video for EvE online. If you have never played EvE, this will definitely be the thing that makes you at least want to try it. Gaming companies should learn from this on how to advertise their games. It is much better than the, in my opinion, stupid celebrity WoW commercials Blizzard has done.





And to close things off, I have 6 HoN keys sitting around in my inbox, and I suppose I can afford to give away 3 of them to the first 3 people that send me a PM over Gameriot(honestly though, who doesn't have one of these yet?).

Taken from: http://stratstrats.com