Today we have been given a leaked document, an official WCG letter to partners, that states that WCG will be going mobile phone games only.
I've got no reason to doubt the letter or the source that leaked it. It's signed by Brad Lee, the CEO of WCG. I thought it might be an elaborate April Fools at first but it seems genuine.
Anyway, we ran the story at Cadred:
In recent years, the gaming and IT trends have been moving so fast. In the current status of gaming and IT industry, one of the most remarkable information to us was the mobile shipments have exceeded the PC shipments.
As wide spread mobile devices, mobile gamer would rapidly increase as well. In this situation, the major PC game publishers have been expanding their investment and business in the mobile game development & publishing.
This information was very cruel to us since we had been committed to the PC-Based gaming event for long time. We have witnessed that there have been many companies and organizations who went out of business because they didn't put effort to change. Therefore we concluded that we should create WCG's new identity.
Under this circumstance, we made a hard decision that we should bring the mobile, new key sector in the game industry, in our event concept. Hence, WCG decided to start the Mobile Game-Based Festival.
On March 26 2012 22:17 oGoZenob wrote: thaht was such a legendary tournament in bw ... such a shame, but i guess thy need the money
I don't see millions of people tuning to watch someone play angry birds, for some reason. If this is true then this is the most hilarious and sad collapse of a brand i've ever witnessed...
Yeah. This cannot be serious. It would be so bad for e-sports. WCG at one time was one of the greatest tournaments we had. It would be great to see them make a comeback, but not through mobile games.
It shows the growth of not just the SC but of esports in general when it feels like the only thing that will be hurt by WCG exiting the scene is our nostalgia.
Good luck with mobile phone "esports" ... isn't the main value of the WCG that many people tune in the streams and you can get advertisement going ... who wants to see people "play" FarmVille via their iPhones?
On March 26 2012 22:23 Jiddra wrote: Several esport sites have reported on this now, wcg 2011 was a big fiasco and they have been struggling with their finances.
It doesn't really come as a surprise that they didn't know how to make WCG viable nowdays, so this is a step in leaving the esport scene for Samsung.
No wonder it was a failure, it was a horrid viewer even for anyone who watched it online. But i guess instead of figuring out why their event was so bad they will suicide on this instead
On March 26 2012 22:29 NeonFox wrote: Lol this is impossible it would be like national soccer leagues turning to table football only.
Well this is not the best analogy, because in table soccer there is still quite much skill involved! Which game for a mobile phone needs real skill? Angry Birds?
On March 26 2012 22:37 JustPassingBy wrote: Yes, all the hours playing angry birds now start to pay off! And my dreams of becoming a wcg champion will become true!
Wouldn't be so sure, my 8 year old sister is pretty beastly at the game.
I hope this is true. The last WCG is a joke...I think this is a troll attempt, but still. WCG has gone a long way down since once being the olympics of eSports.
On March 26 2012 22:29 NeonFox wrote: Lol this is impossible it would be like national soccer leagues turning to table football only.
Well this is not the best analogy, because in table soccer there is still quite much skill involved! Which game for a mobile phone needs real skill? Angry Birds?
Perhaps we'll have a Tetris tournament. It can be pretty amazing but the best players at it can play it for days without losing. :d
On March 26 2012 22:29 NeonFox wrote: Lol this is impossible it would be like national soccer leagues turning to table football only.
Well this is not the best analogy, because in table soccer there is still quite much skill involved! Which game for a mobile phone needs real skill? Angry Birds?
Perhaps we'll have a Tetris tournament. It can be pretty amazing but the best players at it can play it for days without losing. :d
I want to see Flamewheel as a wcg Champion! Im all for this!
I could believe this. In the 2011 grand finals, a mobile game (Asphalt 6) had the largest prize pool. $40,000. Whether this was done because promotion, sponsors, etc I don't know, but it still almost doubled every other game's prize pool at the event.
I cannot believe what a hilariously shortsighted decision this is. CS has been around for 10+ years and they're throwing it out for games that are fads that will disappear in a matter of months to a year.
If this came out on april fools day people would just be laughing. I still hope this is a joke.
On March 26 2012 22:44 PassiveAce wrote: I cannot believe what a hilariously shortsighted decision this is. CS has been around for 10+ years and there throwing it out for games that are fads that will disappear in a matter of months to a year.
If this came out on april fools day people would just be laughing. I still hope this is a joke.
They threw BW that started it all. You can be damn sure they can destroy another pillar, too.
This really does seem like an early april fools. There's no way angry birds is going to replace competitive PC gaming...the thought...is so..overwhelmingly ridiculous I can't even hold it in my mind
WCG has been going down the drain for years. With catastrophic management and financial troubles, it was only a matter of time. I'm only surprised by how shortsightedly a company can act. It may work for a year or two at most as purely a marketing event, then it will die off as sponsors realize that noone gives a rat's ass for watching smartphone "esports". Farewell, WCG. edit: If the rumors are true, that is. With how WCG has developed in recent years, I find that plausible.
Good idea! A problem could be the Angry Birds balance because since the yellow bird nerv its just too red bird favored. And the Snake lategame is just unwinnable for... the snake...
In all seriousness, this is pretty sad for what used to be the Olympics of esports, but mismanagement and bad decisions can really bring down even the greatest of organizations.
On March 26 2012 23:21 Gorsameth wrote: Pretty damn sure this is an April Fools. To stupid for something big like WCG to go mobile games.
at last WCG the highest prize pool was given to a mobile game, I know it sounds ridicouless but WCG simply been shit for such a long time, them making a decision like this doesn't surprise me, because they haven't done anything but mistakes in all their years - also, look at the games they had nominated before this as their games, like skyrim wtf?? skyrim was up for voting to a eSport tournament, a game without any multi-player.
Yes this has been a rumor around for weeks in Chinese scene, but we didn't have a solid confirmation on that, till now. WCG can go to hell. But I feel shame for Kunshan taking such a big shit on them.
That WCG guy has pretty horrible and bad grammar / sentence structure. It's kind of like a mix between a normal person and Yoda, except in that it is not very parseable.
IDK why everybody consider it as a troll april joke or whatever. Cadred is legit site maybe not so well known but they definately have thier own sources. I personally believe it.
WCG=Samsung its well known. Last few years wcg was strugling and last year more than before.
SO why are people so suprised about this ? why so many troll joke comments ? I thought that TL comunity is more mature or whatever but by the comments it doesnt look like
The WCG was pretty crappy in 2011, they didn't made qualifiers for important countries like finland, spain, USA (on CS), denmark, etc. It doesn't really surprises me, I don't care that much even tho I'm mostly a CS player/fan. The tournament was really poor last year, the CS scene was ready to stop considering it a "major" like it was years ago.
I don't think this will have much impact when it comes to CS, but I hope its a joke because we would be losing another multigaming tournament and no one really wants that happening.
PS: their rules where all about promoting Samsung on expenses of the professional teams/players that attended the event, that was pretty lame IMHO, I'm happy that at least we won't see that happening from now on.
Back in its heyday WCG was amazing to watch but last year was so bad, stream quality was poor and the overall experience was nothing like it used to be.
I used to get hyped for it but now it's just a small thing compared to the tournaments we have going on, oh well, I'll always remember sitting up to watch the CS 1.6 finals and Brood war ones and big up Apollo for UKs gold there in CnC xD
I feel worse about the other games that relied on WCG more heavily than Starcraft did. Still, it's the end of something that was so important for so long. I can't believe mobile gaming would actually be competitive enough to support this?
On March 27 2012 00:01 Ph0en1x wrote: IDK why everybody consider it as a troll april joke or whatever. Cadred is legit site maybe not so well known but they definately have thier own sources. I personally believe it.
It's a "leaked document", so maybe they planned an aprilfools joke to release on April 1st, the joke got leaked.
Not going to believe this before they officially announce it, any other time of the year I probably would, but not this close to april.
On March 26 2012 22:19 Noocta wrote: So.. WCG Angry birds ?
I hope they will install toilet instead of chair. It's the only place i'm good at Angry birds.
You, sir, are full of win.
OT it is such a sad news i hope it's a fake but i doubt it, looks legit. On the other hand if it's a false informations then cadred.org is going to get shitstormed !
Can't understand that. What's the big appeal with casual games like that which you play for 15 minutes when you're bored and on the move or on the toilet? What is so exciting to *watch* in those games? And does *competing* in such games even make sense? That's like Minesweeper becoming a WCG game, or like playing Hide and Seek becoming a professional sport. I thought e-sports as a whole was going upwards. With plans like this, I can only see it dying.
On March 27 2012 00:55 0xDEADBEEF wrote: Can't understand that. What's the big appeal with casual games like that which you play for 15 minutes when you're bored and on the move or on the toilet? What is so exciting to *watch* in those games? And does *competing* in such games even make sense? That's like Minesweeper becoming a WCG game, or like playing Hide and Seek becoming a professional sport. I thought e-sports as a whole was going upwards. With plans like this, I can only see it dying.
don't worry dude, the wcg was pretty bad for eSports. their focus was always off. I mean, wtf they nominated skyrim and portal 2 for WCG 2012 games, thats just awful.
On March 27 2012 00:55 0xDEADBEEF wrote: Can't understand that. What's the big appeal with casual games like that which you play for 15 minutes when you're bored and on the move or on the toilet? What is so exciting to *watch* in those games? And does *competing* in such games even make sense? That's like Minesweeper becoming a WCG game, or like playing Hide and Seek becoming a professional sport. I thought e-sports as a whole was going upwards. With plans like this, I can only see it dying.
don't worry dude, the wcg was pretty bad for eSports. their focus was always off. I mean, wtf they nominated skyrim and portal 2 for WCG 2012 games, thats just awful.
Skyrim? Really? How the heck do you compete in Skyrim? Is there multiplayer mods or something?
if they really think that they will get an actual audience with this .... well after they did it once they might realize that this is never going to work and maybe go back to the roots but i am going to enjoy this fail haha
On March 27 2012 00:55 0xDEADBEEF wrote: Can't understand that. What's the big appeal with casual games like that which you play for 15 minutes when you're bored and on the move or on the toilet? What is so exciting to *watch* in those games? And does *competing* in such games even make sense? That's like Minesweeper becoming a WCG game, or like playing Hide and Seek becoming a professional sport. I thought e-sports as a whole was going upwards. With plans like this, I can only see it dying.
don't worry dude, the wcg was pretty bad for eSports. their focus was always off. I mean, wtf they nominated skyrim and portal 2 for WCG 2012 games, thats just awful.
Skyrim? Really? How the heck do you compete in Skyrim? Is there multiplayer mods or something?
not of my knowledge but even if theres one its so unpopular that should be out of the discussion.
theres also diablo 3 even tho its not even released, lmao.
On March 27 2012 00:55 0xDEADBEEF wrote: Can't understand that. What's the big appeal with casual games like that which you play for 15 minutes when you're bored and on the move or on the toilet? What is so exciting to *watch* in those games? And does *competing* in such games even make sense? That's like Minesweeper becoming a WCG game, or like playing Hide and Seek becoming a professional sport. I thought e-sports as a whole was going upwards. With plans like this, I can only see it dying.
don't worry dude, the wcg was pretty bad for eSports. their focus was always off. I mean, wtf they nominated skyrim and portal 2 for WCG 2012 games, thats just awful.
Skyrim? Really? How the heck do you compete in Skyrim? Is there multiplayer mods or something?
On March 27 2012 00:55 0xDEADBEEF wrote: Can't understand that. What's the big appeal with casual games like that which you play for 15 minutes when you're bored and on the move or on the toilet? What is so exciting to *watch* in those games? And does *competing* in such games even make sense? That's like Minesweeper becoming a WCG game, or like playing Hide and Seek becoming a professional sport. I thought e-sports as a whole was going upwards. With plans like this, I can only see it dying.
don't worry dude, the wcg was pretty bad for eSports. their focus was always off. I mean, wtf they nominated skyrim and portal 2 for WCG 2012 games, thats just awful.
But it's still worrying because WCG is huge and alternatives are between rare and non-existent. If WCG dies or becomes irrelevant (even if it deserves so for doing such stupid decisions), it's bad for the scene.
Well, it's been an interesting day of responses... Apart from all the "it's an early April Fool" ones (Really? A company would send a letter out to its partners, days in advance of April Fool, filling them with erroneous information that would cost them money and business relationships? I guess that's plausible...)
Earlier today an e-sports industry veteran, who wished to remain anonymous, confirmed the news and sent us a long piece of correspondence that revealed other things, such as Samsung actually OWNING WCG as opposed to sponsoring it.
We publish that also and we're absolutely confident that not only our initial post but also the contents of this letter are accurate.
On March 27 2012 01:58 Richard_Lewis wrote: Well, it's been an interesting day of responses... Apart from all the "it's an early April Fool" ones (Really? A company would send a letter out to its partners, days in advance of April Fool, filling them with erroneous information that would cost them money and business relationships? I guess that's plausible...)
Earlier today an e-sports industry veteran, who wished to remain anonymous, confirmed the news and sent us a long piece of correspondence that revealed other things, such as Samsung actually OWNING WCG as opposed to sponsoring it.
We publish that also and we're absolutely confident that not only our initial post but also the contents of this letter are accurate.
On March 27 2012 01:58 Richard_Lewis wrote: Well, it's been an interesting day of responses... Apart from all the "it's an early April Fool" ones (Really? A company would send a letter out to its partners, days in advance of April Fool, filling them with erroneous information that would cost them money and business relationships? I guess that's plausible...)
Earlier today an e-sports industry veteran, who wished to remain anonymous, confirmed the news and sent us a long piece of correspondence that revealed other things, such as Samsung actually OWNING WCG as opposed to sponsoring it.
We publish that also and we're absolutely confident that not only our initial post but also the contents of this letter are accurate.
You're editor in chief of Cadred and did not know Samsung owns WCG......?
I knew, yes, but it has never been a matter of public record. In fact Samsung have made a point of trying to avoid directly admitting to that for obvious reasons. For the vast majority of e-sports fans Samsung would have been seen as the principle sponsor, not the owners, because that's how Samsung always branded it.
In short, having someone confirm that fact is newsworthy, whatever people suspected or "knew".
I think people thought it must be an april fools joke because it actually sounds like a really hilarious april fools prank. what did you expect peoples reactions to be :p?
On March 27 2012 02:17 PassiveAce wrote: I think people thought it must be an april fools joke because it actually sounds like a really hilarious april fools prank. what did you expect peoples reactions to be :p?
I'd expect people to know that Aprils Fools is April 1st for starters...
On March 27 2012 01:58 Richard_Lewis wrote: Well, it's been an interesting day of responses... Apart from all the "it's an early April Fool" ones (Really? A company would send a letter out to its partners, days in advance of April Fool, filling them with erroneous information that would cost them money and business relationships? I guess that's plausible...)
Earlier today an e-sports industry veteran, who wished to remain anonymous, confirmed the news and sent us a long piece of correspondence that revealed other things, such as Samsung actually OWNING WCG as opposed to sponsoring it.
We publish that also and we're absolutely confident that not only our initial post but also the contents of this letter are accurate.
You're editor in chief of Cadred and did not know Samsung owns WCG......?
I knew, yes, but it has never been a matter of public record. In fact Samsung have made a point of trying to avoid directly admitting to that for obvious reasons. For the vast majority of e-sports fans Samsung would have been seen as the principle sponsor, not the owners, because that's how Samsung always branded it.
In short, having someone confirm that fact is newsworthy, whatever people suspected or "knew".
If you can't see this guy is trolling you gotta be new on teh internetz.
On March 27 2012 02:17 PassiveAce wrote: I think people thought it must be an april fools joke because it actually sounds like a really hilarious april fools prank. what did you expect peoples reactions to be :p?
I'd expect people to know that Aprils Fools is April 1st for starters...
Its just very silly to me and to many others I think :p I think its pretty normal for people who frequent this forum to have reactions like this.
On March 27 2012 02:17 PassiveAce wrote: I think people thought it must be an april fools joke because it actually sounds like a really hilarious april fools prank. what did you expect peoples reactions to be :p?
I'd expect people to know that Aprils Fools is April 1st for starters...
Its just very silly to me and to many others I think :p I think its pretty normal for people who frequent this forum to have reactions like this.
I'm not saying it's not shocking news however the direction WCG have been headed it makes sense and the fact it isn't April Fools should probably be the key indicator that it's not a hoax.
On March 27 2012 02:31 theBALLS wrote: troll be gone.
This is obviously fake.
Obviously, which is why we chased the story up when we heard the rumours 2 weeks ago, saw WCG asking for staff who knew about running mobile phone game tournaments and had the story confirmed by a few sources, one of which could provide a letter on official WCG headed paper and signed by their CEO.
So how many Mighty Eagles can you use in WCG rules Angry Birds?
I was certain that this was a leaked April Fool's joke... if it isn't, there's just no reason to ever watch/participate in/contribute financially to WCG ever again.
I probably won't ever buy Samsung products if they kill WCG like this.
*edit* I say this having never boycotted anything. Even after a failed attempt at a glorious rebirth into ESEA after many season off (entirely new meta... kids are way too good now), I left my subscription running just to support CS (it's a couple bucks a month).
On March 27 2012 02:52 ScaSully wrote: wonder what games they would include? doodle jump? like why would people be flying out for something so dumb lol
On March 27 2012 02:17 PassiveAce wrote: I think people thought it must be an april fools joke because it actually sounds like a really hilarious april fools prank. what did you expect peoples reactions to be :p?
I'd expect people to know that Aprils Fools is April 1st for starters...
Its just very silly to me and to many others I think :p I think its pretty normal for people who frequent this forum to have reactions like this.
I'm not saying it's not shocking news however the direction WCG have been headed it makes sense and the fact it isn't April Fools should probably be the key indicator that it's not a hoax.
Fair enough, im not trying to spread misinformation here.
I don`t feel like it is a big loss for the PC gaming community. WCG was on the downfall for some years now and the last edition was terrible. Bad streams, very few streamed games, shrinking pricemoney, bad PR etc. ...
I will remember the great times and leave it with that. GG.
I'm not sure why people would have trouble believing this (whether it turns up to be actually true or not). It would be a reasonable decision for them, it certainly wouldn't make them a less relevant event than they are now.
Actually think this is fine. Will finally mean WCG can stop being that tournament you always hope will be better next time. It should just die and stop living on past glories I think. Will be good for the scene. It's not like WCG even features anymore on the global gaming map.
Well Samsung has to do with phones and nothing to do with computers anymore as far as I know. So this seems unsurprising to me. I do not know how this is shocking to anyone.
Also (after not reading the other posts in the thread), anyone know what games are going to be played? Honestly, phone games are not video games. It is like calling a 5 minute clip of a TV show a TV show in itself.
On March 28 2012 07:41 Torte de Lini wrote: I'm very intrigued on what we'll be seeing here?
Angry birds?
Fruit Ninja obv...
Also, Words with Friends. I mean... the Scrabble championships have been shown on ESPN.......
But on a more serious note, as of now I can't really say that there is the technology with these touchscreen phones to create a competitive game in which tens of thousands of dollars would be competed for. I'd say add some peripherals to increase the skill depth by allotting more commands to the players. In my opinion, computer gaming has, and always will be the apex of competitive skill in gaming due to the massive amounts of command options avaliable not only with the keyboard, but with the mouse as well!
On March 26 2012 22:29 NeonFox wrote: Lol this is impossible it would be like national soccer leagues turning to table football only.
Well this is not the best analogy, because in table soccer there is still quite much skill involved! Which game for a mobile phone needs real skill? Angry Birds?
As a professional Angry Birds player and contender for the WCG Angry Birds Championship, I find your comment offensive.
Fuk them anyway, Wcg's been doing worse since the very first one. They did way too many bad decisions and they don't seem to learn. Why would you still care ? Seriously. Maybe this mobile's thing will help them get their money back but i really hope they fucking learn their lessons from the past (Remember bw fading away because of lacks of place's representatives ? Today is still no exception).
In an effort to verify the accuracy of the claims above, we contacted WCG's representatives in Australia, TLS. Chris 'r0cky' Hailes confirmed to us that the letter was indeed accurate, however Chris declined to comment on the situation itself - beyond confirming its legitimacy.
fucking shit, i remember watching wcg 2002 and it was THE thing, Blackman vs Boxer, years later draco beating Midas, and many years of following CS, there was a big national pride at WCG always, turning it into some mobile gaming circus is disgusting.
On March 28 2012 21:44 marttorn wrote: Why.... ? What do they possibly gain from this, but the loathing of the entire PC gaming world? I'm severely confused
the main sponsor is samsung, and samsung want its product advertised ...
On March 28 2012 21:44 marttorn wrote: Why.... ? What do they possibly gain from this, but the loathing of the entire PC gaming world? I'm severely confused
Samsung gets a show for android apps in markets that doesn't give a fuck about what WCG did in 2009. They are going to focus on festivals and malls.
I'm with the majority on this one - either this is an early April Fool's joke, or this is a joke as in it's pathetic. Switching from esports to mobile games? C'mon WCG, I'd have thought you'd be more experienced in the field of gaming than to get desperate and switch to such a lame gaming platform such as cell phones. I'm assuming that this gets rid of console gaming for them, as well?
Honestly, if you want to include mobile games, go ahead. But don't chuck everything else out the window.
fucking shit, i remember watching wcg 2002 and it was THE thing, Blackman vs Boxer, years later draco beating Midas, and many years of following CS, there was a big national pride at WCG always, turning it into some mobile gaming circus is disgusting.
Draco was amazing, the last thing I remember about him was playing in the TSL, he shoul've won that. Also some sick matches between SK vs mTw, and fnatic vs Again in CS.
On March 27 2012 01:13 Boundz(DarKo) wrote: Not surprised.
This is what I love about TL. There's always that one person that is thinking in their head when all of us are doing other stuff:: "It wouldn't be weird/surprising at all to see WCG go all mobile." I assume such people go on with this opinion and do not post it unless if they are right. In the event that they are right, they proceed to post the above quote and be smug.
On March 26 2012 22:23 Jiddra wrote: Several esport sites have reported on this now, wcg 2011 was a big fiasco and they have been struggling with their finances.
It doesn't really come as a surprise that they didn't know how to make WCG viable nowdays, so this is a step in leaving the esport scene for Samsung.
But they have all reported the same news with the same original source. Until there's an official statement I'd stay cool, especially since they did have the poll this year, even if that means nothing
On March 27 2012 01:13 Boundz(DarKo) wrote: Not surprised.
This is what I love about TL. There's always that one person that is thinking in their head when all of us are doing other stuff:: "It wouldn't be weird/surprising at all to see WCG go all mobile." I assume such people go on with this opinion and do not post it unless if they are right. In the event that they are right, they proceed to post the above quote and be smug.
They missed a very important step - browser games , only after they fully expored the browser games esports world they should have downgrated to mobiles games.
On March 28 2012 21:44 marttorn wrote: Why.... ? What do they possibly gain from this, but the loathing of the entire PC gaming world? I'm severely confused
It's really simple.
The PC gaming world in general doesn't give a shit about WCG. I imagine most PC gamers never even heard about it, and most game industry companies and developers have nothing to do with it and couldn't care less. Esports in general is a fringe business with an extremely niche audience. Mobile apps (games being #1 among them atm) are a massive and growing industry. Connect the dots.
It boggles my mind that people actually think this is somehow a step down for WCG (with Samsung behind it of all companies -_-) to the extent where they think it's so unrealistic that it would be an "april fools" joke.
On March 28 2012 21:44 marttorn wrote: Why.... ? What do they possibly gain from this, but the loathing of the entire PC gaming world? I'm severely confused
It's really simple.
The PC gaming world in general doesn't give a shit about WCG. I imagine most PC gamers never even heard about it, and most game industry companies and developers have nothing to do with it and couldn't care less. Esports in general is a fringe business with an extremely niche audience. Mobile apps (games being #1 among them atm) are a massive and growing industry. Connect the dots.
It boggles my mind that people actually think this is somehow a step down for WCG (with Samsung behind it of all companies -_-) to the extent where they think it's so unrealistic that it would be an "april fools" joke.
Noone doubted the fact that mobile games are a growing industry. What simply boggled everyone in here is seeing mobile gaming as a competitive e-sport. The simplicity involved in such games make them poor spectator sports and there are few opportunities to develop interesting approaches to playing the game or showing amazing skill in it.
cant wait for this to blow up in someones face....wonder how long they thougth about this for... or if they just had a dart borad and kepts throwing darts till it hit something... =p
A true concept of "esports" as a reputable and stable industry of secure professionals, the likes of which can be viewed as anything beyond a cheap novelty, is circling the drain.
I can see why people would think this was an april fools.
On March 28 2012 21:44 marttorn wrote: Why.... ? What do they possibly gain from this, but the loathing of the entire PC gaming world? I'm severely confused
Samsung is android, android is pushing to own the mobile games market. By extention, Samsung wants to own the mobile games market.
Hardcore PC gamers are meaningless to Samsung. We (in theory) don't buy their shit, the way a hardcore phone junkie might.
On March 28 2012 21:44 marttorn wrote: Why.... ? What do they possibly gain from this, but the loathing of the entire PC gaming world? I'm severely confused
It's really simple.
The PC gaming world in general doesn't give a shit about WCG. I imagine most PC gamers never even heard about it, and most game industry companies and developers have nothing to do with it and couldn't care less. Esports in general is a fringe business with an extremely niche audience. Mobile apps (games being #1 among them atm) are a massive and growing industry. Connect the dots.
It boggles my mind that people actually think this is somehow a step down for WCG (with Samsung behind it of all companies -_-) to the extent where they think it's so unrealistic that it would be an "april fools" joke.
Noone doubted the fact that mobile games are a growing industry. What simply boggled everyone in here is seeing mobile gaming as a competitive e-sport. The simplicity involved in such games make them poor spectator sports and there are few opportunities to develop interesting approaches to playing the game or showing amazing skill in it.
I don't think they're even thinking of it in terms of "e-sports". If they're smart, they'll promote it as a mobile gaming festival with a competitive element on the side rather than "gathering of top Angry Birds progamers" kind of thing.
They don't need it to be a sport or to involve skill, they just want to popularize the games and get their own devices to sell more. Which is still a lot more than they can accomplish by going with actual e-sports (and the actual event will probably be cheaper for them as well).
Why.... ? What do they possibly gain from this, but the loathing of the entire PC gaming world? I'm severely confused
If they're smart, they'll promote it as a mobile gaming festival with a competitive element on the side rather than "gathering of top Angry Birds progamers" kind of thing. [/QUOTE]
That's exactly what they're doing, as it said in the letter we published when we broke the story:
Under this circumstance, we made a hard decision that we should bring the mobile, new key sector in the game industry, in our event concept. Hence, WCG decided to start the Mobile Game-Based Festival.
To create the Mobile Game-Based Festival, WCG is under the discussion with the sponsors and game publishers regarding new event structure and the countries for new festival. Therefore, there will be no longer present event module, such as Pan Championship, and PC-Based National Finals. And, the official game titles of WCG will consist of mobile games.
EPT
