eSports Taking Next Step Into the Mainstream

Continuing with the eSports topic, Major League Gaming and ESPN have partnered to present an eSports tournament at the upcoming X Games in June.  The tournament will be based on the Call of Duty game and will have a total of eight teams participating.  For the first time, X Games medals will be awarded to MLG professional gamers.   This is just the next step for eSports as they move further up in popularity and further move into the mainstream.  The MLG/ESPN story on this can be found here. 

That's not all the recent good news for eSports.  Bloomberg Business Week has a news item discussing the construction of a 15,000 seat eSports stadium near Macau in China.  According to the article, "Hong Kong developer Lai Fung Holdings plans to build a 15,000-seat stadium so fans can watch gamers play one another in front of them."  The stadium will be a part of a much larger, $2.8 billion gaming theme park planned for Hengquin Island, near to Macau.  Macau rapidly grew into one of the largest gaming destinations in the world in just a few years.  It appears China is looking to be a world leader in this form of gaming as well.  According to Bloomberg, more than 500 million people in China play video games.  Contrast that to the total population of the US, which is barely above 300 million and you get a perspective on just how big gaming is in China. 

Quoting further from the Business Week article, they note that the Activision Call of Duty tournament in March had a $1 million prize purse.  It is apparent eSports is getting big and getting big fast.  Again, keep an eye on eSports.