E3: EA ESPORTS

EA Unveils eSports Structure

My Take: EA finally unveiled their strategy on eSports and not surprisingly, will focus on Madden, FIFA, and Battlefield 1 — and shockingly not Titanfall 2 — but that’s probably as the game was just revealed and focus on BF1 as the lead FPS title.

The overall details were not announced but focused on the launch of the Madden 17 Championship spanning 4 Majors with a $1M Prize Pool. That’s pretty significant for the first major foray into eSports although these types of Madden events on smaller scale have happened for a while.

(Photo: EA)

What’s interesting to me is the 3 tier structure of EA eSports (sorry CGD — Competitive Gaming Division. That’s a mouthful.) Here’s how it’s made up:

Challenger: Community-focused competitions. EA will work with gamers to start their own tournaments.

Community-focused competitions. EA will work with gamers to start their own tournaments. Premier: Large-scale events that EA will host in partnership with other companies.

Large-scale events that EA will host in partnership with other companies. EA Majors: Highest level with regional and world champions

Here’s how to read this:

Challenger: All those companies that have been running Madden online tournaments to date? Don’t be surprised if that goes to one exclusive company — until EA is ready to handle it all themselves.

All those companies that have been running Madden online tournaments to date? Don’t be surprised if that goes to one exclusive company — until EA is ready to handle it all themselves. Premier: EA didn’t define “companies” but I’m guessing event and production companies like ESL. Awesome for EA. Events are not a scalable long-term business.

EA didn’t define “companies” but I’m guessing event and production companies like ESL. Awesome for EA. Events are not a scalable long-term business. EA Majors: Not many details but similar to Call of Duty World League.

EA also announced that the Madden 16 Championship during E3 would be broadcast on ESPN2.

(Photo: EA)

I’ve covered a few of these areas already:

I don’t see a lot of inside perspective on the space so I’m going to go ahead and do it. When you take a POV, you hope that You’re Right > You’re Wrong. Wow was I wrong. Let’s see how it did [Insert usual qualifying statement about one/few data points and other considerations I’ve already covered]:

Considering the overall minimal marketing and announcement the day before the airing, that’s a pretty strong start. Not only did it beat E League significantly in Week 3, it almost equaled E League’s premiere viewers. (Viewers not specified will always be 18–49 as it’s the key demo for advertisers.)

I looked at the previous month’s data as to what aired at the same time on ESPN on Tuesday’s at 6pm’s — a repeat of “Around The Horn” — so no good comparison. Just for fun, here’s how Madden performed head-to-head with SportsCenter:

Granted SportsCenter is Live for hours a day but that’s half the viewership. Then the biggest point: An average ESPN :30 spot was $55,000 in 2013. Even assuming no increase in three years and the premium for SportsCenter, the ROI for eSports is higher.

What I’m still puzzled by is why the viewership was that high. Was it the off-season and reflects the passion of the NFL fan for content? Did the entire Madden Nation show up with little fanfare? I don’t have the answers.

Although EA made several eSports announcements, I expected most of those. What I’m most interested is what’s coming up next:

With Challenger and Xbox Arena — TBC tomorrow — where do tournament platform companies go on Console? Everyone’s working together now but it makes sense to handle all of this at either the game and/or platform level.

What’s coming to TV next? You’ll definitely see more Madden probably tied with the upcoming NFL season. The 2016 World Cup in Japan is a prime opportunity to start FIFA now.

New titles? Maybe because I’m one of the few that actually liked the first Titanfall that I hope EA gives Titanfall 2 a chance — giant mech fighting! — its perfect for eSports. Unfortunately the game has no groundwork built yet to blossom.

EA has a monstrous gap to close with Activision-Blizzard. Call of Duty is doing fine and Blizzard’s war chest of Starcraft, Heroes of the Storm — somewhat — Hearthstone and we haven’t even scratched the surface on the massive potential of Overwatch.

Let the games begin.