Comments on: Dispatch from CES: Day 1–Gaming Issues http://techliberation.com/2007/01/07/dispatch-from-ces-day-1-gaming-issues/ Keeping politicians' hands off the Net & everything else related to technology Tue, 14 Feb 2012 12:51:08 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: John Middleton http://techliberation.com/2007/01/07/dispatch-from-ces-day-1-gaming-issues/comment-page-1/#comment-36638 John Middleton Mon, 08 Jan 2007 09:13:27 +0000 http://techliberation.com/2007/01/07/dispatch-from-ces-day-1-gaming-issues/#comment-36638 <p>I have to disagree with your point about gaming not becoming a proper spectator sport, particularly in regard to Halo or Quake.</p> <p>Back in the early days of online gaming, a Finnish clan produced a free product for Qizmo for Quake which allowed for the first mass-viewing of clan matches and came to the fore when the top US team (DeathRow) came to play top EU team (Clan 9) in like 1995 and there were 100s of spectators all on their 28.8k modems watching the matches. This has continued to grow today to games like CounterStrike, Warcraft 3 and Quake 4 getting 1000s of viewers for top matches streamed live.</p> <p>If you extrapolate the growth of online gaming (along with broadband) into the potential market for the viewing of top-level gaming events then I think there are clear opportunities for, at the least, web-based distribution of gaming events with Halo and CounterStrike. It doesn't need to be a 'mass audience' in terms of traditional television because it is a segment of the market - but possibly a large segment and one that is very attractive to marketers (~12 - 24). With continuing generational shift (i.e. the gamers get older!) there will be an ever-increasing market size, opening more opportunity for mass-market services.</p> I have to disagree with your point about gaming not becoming a proper spectator sport, particularly in regard to Halo or Quake.

Back in the early days of online gaming, a Finnish clan produced a free product for Qizmo for Quake which allowed for the first mass-viewing of clan matches and came to the fore when the top US team (DeathRow) came to play top EU team (Clan 9) in like 1995 and there were 100s of spectators all on their 28.8k modems watching the matches. This has continued to grow today to games like CounterStrike, Warcraft 3 and Quake 4 getting 1000s of viewers for top matches streamed live.

If you extrapolate the growth of online gaming (along with broadband) into the potential market for the viewing of top-level gaming events then I think there are clear opportunities for, at the least, web-based distribution of gaming events with Halo and CounterStrike. It doesn’t need to be a ‘mass audience’ in terms of traditional television because it is a segment of the market – but possibly a large segment and one that is very attractive to marketers (~12 – 24). With continuing generational shift (i.e. the gamers get older!) there will be an ever-increasing market size, opening more opportunity for mass-market services.

]]> By: John Middleton http://techliberation.com/2007/01/07/dispatch-from-ces-day-1-gaming-issues/comment-page-1/#comment-45361 John Middleton Mon, 08 Jan 2007 09:13:27 +0000 http://techliberation.com/2007/01/07/dispatch-from-ces-day-1-gaming-issues/#comment-45361 <p>I have to disagree with your point about gaming not becoming a proper spectator sport, particularly in regard to Halo or Quake.<br><br>Back in the early days of online gaming, a Finnish clan produced a free product for Qizmo for Quake which allowed for the first mass-viewing of clan matches and came to the fore when the top US team (DeathRow) came to play top EU team (Clan 9) in like 1995 and there were 100s of spectators all on their 28.8k modems watching the matches. This has continued to grow today to games like CounterStrike, Warcraft 3 and Quake 4 getting 1000s of viewers for top matches streamed live.<br><br>If you extrapolate the growth of online gaming (along with broadband) into the potential market for the viewing of top-level gaming events then I think there are clear opportunities for, at the least, web-based distribution of gaming events with Halo and CounterStrike. It doesn't need to be a 'mass audience' in terms of traditional television because it is a segment of the market - but possibly a large segment and one that is very attractive to marketers (~12 - 24). With continuing generational shift (i.e. the gamers get older!) there will be an ever-increasing market size, opening more opportunity for mass-market services.</p> I have to disagree with your point about gaming not becoming a proper spectator sport, particularly in regard to Halo or Quake.

Back in the early days of online gaming, a Finnish clan produced a free product for Qizmo for Quake which allowed for the first mass-viewing of clan matches and came to the fore when the top US team (DeathRow) came to play top EU team (Clan 9) in like 1995 and there were 100s of spectators all on their 28.8k modems watching the matches. This has continued to grow today to games like CounterStrike, Warcraft 3 and Quake 4 getting 1000s of viewers for top matches streamed live.

If you extrapolate the growth of online gaming (along with broadband) into the potential market for the viewing of top-level gaming events then I think there are clear opportunities for, at the least, web-based distribution of gaming events with Halo and CounterStrike. It doesn’t need to be a ‘mass audience’ in terms of traditional television because it is a segment of the market – but possibly a large segment and one that is very attractive to marketers (~12 – 24). With continuing generational shift (i.e. the gamers get older!) there will be an ever-increasing market size, opening more opportunity for mass-market services.

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