“Esports Winter” Shows Signs of a Promising Spring
The community-driven success of EVO, the hottest summer title release, and more stories from gaming in August 2023
EVO 2023, from @EVO on Twitter1) EVO is the latest esports event illustrating that esports and competitive gaming fandoms are still very much alive and well– despite the financial forecast of “esports winter”
From @EVO on Twitter
The Evolution Championship Series, or EVO for short, is perhaps the most prestigious annual fighting game event in North America. It began in 1996 and has since grown exponentially– this year, hosted in Las Vegas, EVO boasted an attendance of over 20,000. The event saw 9,182 unique players competing in various popular fighting games, from Street Fighter 6 to Guilty Gear.
Even the mayor of Las Vegas made an appearance, and bestowed the keys to the city to the founders of EVO: Tom and Tony Cannon. The Cannon brothers, who famously created the rollback netcode program GGPO, are now working on Riot Games’ most anticipated title since their smash-hit tactical FPS Valorant. This new fighting game is known currently as “Project L.”
EVO’s presenting sponsor was Chipotle Mexican Grill, and the restaurant was shown lots of love from the massive crowd every time their brand popped up during the show.
The apparent success of EVO– as well as other major esports events lately like the “Cathedral of Counterstrike” in Cologne, Germany– show just how dedicated and ever-enthusiastic the gaming community can be when it comes to their favorite games played at the highest levels. It is a much-welcomed sign of life during “esports winter,” which in truth is more of a financial course-correction for an industry still in its infancy.
2) The Baldur’s Gate 3 official release smashed records over the weekend, bringing role-playing games back to the forefront
From @baldursgate3 on Twitter: Last weekend, you played 1225 years of Baldur’s Gate 3. As we head into the second weekend of launch, we’ve compiled some tasty stats for you to sink your teeth into.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is the latest role-playing game developed and published by Larian Studios– and within its opening weekend, players collectively spent 10,000,000 hours enjoying it. That’s over 1,225 years! The game has also found itself near the top of Steam’s Most-Played Games list, falling just below Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, which was released in 2012.
The game itself is more or less an incredibly well-tailored love letter to the world of Dungeons & Dragons. This is likely due to an agreement in place between Wizards of the Coast (the owners of D&D) and Larian Studios, allowing them to replicate the same map, magic system and lore from the beloved tabletop game.
Because Baldur’s Gate is a role-playing game– rather than a MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) like League of Legends or an FPS (First-Person Shooter) like Counter-Strike– the focus is much more on storytelling than competition. Players can enjoy the world at their own pace, or play with up to 3 other friends in the same campaign.
For newcomers to RPGs, having the game do all the calculations and keep track of the game’s complex rules allows players to enjoy their experience without needing to constantly stop and refer to a D&D 5th Edition manual. With countless hours of dialogue and allegedly over 17,000 potential endings, Baldur’s Gate 3 has cemented itself as one of the best, if not THE best game of 2023.
3) Call of Duty collaborated with artists Nicki Minaj, Snoop Dogg and 21 SavaGE
Popular FPS franchise Call of Duty recently added popular musicians Nicki Minaj, Snoop Dogg and 21 Savage as playable characters in celebration of “50 years of hip-hop”. Video games like Call of Duty, 2k, and Mortal Kombat among others have been referenced within these artists’ lyrics, so it’s another perfect example of how gaming culture has become more blended with the mainstream than ever before.
Other games like Fortnite and Cyberpunk 2077 have also used the likenesses of real celebrities as a way to celebrate and appeal to those artists’ existing fans. For that reason, licensing a celebrity’s brand into gaming is now a very real and unique way that the virtual world can creatively integrate real-life art and culture.
For more information on what makes a winning licensing partnership in gaming, check out this post on our blog.
4) The classics are getting harder to come by
A new report from the Video Game History Foundation in partnership with the Software Preservation Network has taken a look at the commercial availability of classic video games, and concluded that 87% of classic video games released in the United States are “critically endangered”.
Much like the film industry (rest in peace, Blockbuster) and the music industry, video games have shifted to an almost fully-virtual model, rendering physical copies nearly obsolete. The goal of this study is to “Get expanded exemptions for libraries and organizations preserving video games, which are currently far more limited than their ability to preserve books, movies, audio, etc.”
Meanwhile, long-standing companies like Nintendo have grown fond of re-releasing classics that have been reformatted to the newest available console– in this case, the Nintendo Switch. It’s not quite the same experience as playing the games in their original format, but these re-releases are meant to provide players with a similar experience to the original games without need to track down and purchase the “critically endangered” components that were once necessary to enjoy classic titles.
Unfortunately, not all fan-favorite games have had re-releases on current platforms, and because of this many players turn to unofficial emulators or fan-made dupes to scratch their itch for the classics. Companies like Nintendo and Activision have taken notice, and have been known to send Cease and Desists or copyright takedowns in order to protect those works.
