From Arcade gaming to home video games, from connecting servers across a local area network (LAN) to streaming Fortnite live, the gaming industry has come a long way. The iconic Playstation 1 of the late 1990s was regarded as an innovation of its time with its unique design and classic multiplayer games such as Tekken. Fast forward to 2020 and you have the fifth generation of the Playstation which is definitely more powerful than its predecessors that can play blu-ray movies on its console.
The world’s oldest game, ‘Spacewar’, can be considered to have started the trend of competitive gaming. In 1971, students of the University of Stanford competed in it against each other at an event laying the foundation for esports as an industry. Today, winners of esports competitions win enormous sums as prize money. To shed some perspective, back at Stanford in 1971, the winners received a one year sponsored subscription to a rolling stones magazine. The decades that followed witnessed the start of a competitive esports trend with the first official competition taking place in the 1980s in which 10,000 players participated, a record number of participants.
As the craze for gaming picked up, broadcasting companies anticipated its potential and organized live shows where people could tune in and watch players compete against each other, a practice thoroughly enjoyed by passionate audiences in the United States. Some argue that this was the start of the streaming culture we are so accustomed to today. In the 1990s, Nintendo was one of the first companies to identify the growing market for esports and invented portable gaming consoles with their iconic ‘GameBoy’. This device was revolutionary and extremely popular amongst users of all age groups but mostly with the younger generation in the late 80s and 90s as Nintendo stood out in the market with the ease of gaming accessibility it provided.
It would be unfair to ignore the contribution of the internet and personal computers in elevating esports to the next level. The ring-leaders of this evolution being frenzied games such as CounterStrike. The era of Twitch is the icing on the cake in terms of how esports as an industry has truly been commercialized. Even though broadcasting gaming competitions had made its way to viewers back in the 1980s, the media houses had their work cut out for them as they had to battle multiple stakeholders for the acquisition of rights and different viewing channels. Today, twitch is the number one streaming platform enabling gamers to showcase their skills, build their brand and create a revenue stream for themselves. Esports has definitely come a long way when you think about how online gaming was solely considered a hobby and parents would often find it amusing when their children iterated the fact that they would like to make a career out of it. The latter still holds true in certain parts of the world. Through streaming on twitch, gamers are now empowered to make a living for themselves by playing games and realizing their talent even if the trajectory towards a professional career may seem unattainable.
By now we can agree that the momentum of esports isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. As an industry, gaming has more fans than the movie and music industries combined. As the internet slowly evolves to thethird generation of its existence, which will essentially involve decentralized ownership of digital assets, it has added a new dimension to gaming as we know it. Platforms like Twitch, Youtube, Tiktok and other social media platforms facilitate a ‘creator economy’ that allows creators and influencers to earn revenue from their creations. Esports competitions have established the status of gamers as ‘athletes’ who experience special moments each time they take to the console. Twitch live streams are monetized as gaming enthusiasts participate in the creator economy. Through blockchain technology, organizations are leveraging the enormous fandom esports continues to assimilate by converting key moments such as headshots (CS:GO), highlights, skins, weapons, characters, etc. into digital collectibles which are accessible to the fans to purchase, sell and trade as they please.
The opportunities for the industry to evolve may seem exhaustive to some and non-exhaustive to others. But the fact remains that the future is one that can only be speculated. The reality of today was a mere concept in the past, especially when you consider the rise of blockchain gaming. Physical gaming tournaments which would host fans in stadiums could be the next big thing. The Saudi Esports Federation is a living example of this concept. However, in terms of Web3, cloud gaming and gaming on demand could be the next big thing as this would drastically improve the digital assets resale economy, especially with respect to the aforementioned game assets.
A headshot is a unique moment which has the potential to be shared instantly, in real-time, across social networks. Purchasing or selling game highlights a few days post their occurrence rarely has the same emotional significance as it did ‘live’. Owning a part of a stream that has an immense sentimental value to a gamer, through live video collectibles, could just be the opportunity waiting to be tapped.
