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Activision Blizzard Acquires the Business of Major League Gaming

B

Broken Joystick

At least you can talk. Who are you?
http://www.businesswire.com/news/ho...lizzard-Acquires-Business-Major-League-Gaming

SANTA MONICA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Activision Blizzard, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) today announced the acquisition of the business of Major League Gaming (MLG). MLG is a leader in creating and streaming premium live gaming events, organizing professional competitions and running competitive gaming leagues. The acquisition expands Activision Blizzard’s reach across the rapidly-growing esports ecosystem by adding proven live streaming capabilities and technologies to the Activision Blizzard Media Networks division, led by former ESPN CEO Steve Bornstein and MLG Co-founder Mike Sepso.

Bobby Kotick, Chief Executive Officer of Activision Blizzard, said, “Our acquisition of Major League Gaming’s business furthers our plans to create the ESPN of esports. MLG’s ability to create premium content and its proven broadcast technology platform – including its live streaming capabilities – strengthens our strategic position in competitive gaming. MLG has an incredibly strong and seasoned team and a thriving community. Together, we will create new ways to celebrate players and their unique skills, dedication and commitment to gaming. We are excited to add Sundance and the entire MLG esports team to our competitive gaming initiatives.”

Sundance DiGiovanni, Chief Executive Officer and MLG Co-founder, said, “Our mission for over 12 years has been to promote and expand the growth of competitive gaming worldwide, and today the industry is at a key inflection point as its popularity soars and rivals that of many traditional professional sports. This acquisition and Activision Blizzard’s commitment to competitive gaming will expand the opportunities for gamers to be recognized and celebrated for their competitive excellence.”

Mike Sepso, Senior Vice President of Activision Blizzard Media Networks and MLG Co-founder, said, “Sundance and I founded MLG to highlight the incredible talent of competitive gamers all over the world. Activision Blizzard’s esports leadership, incredible intellectual property and long history in competitive gaming create a perfect home for MLG’s capabilities. The acquisition of MLG’s business is an important step towards Activision Blizzard Media Networks’ broader mission to bring esports into the mainstream by creating and broadcasting premium esports content, organizing global league play and expanding distribution with key gaming partners.”

MLG will continue to operate MLG.tv, MLG Pro Circuit and GameBattles platforms, and will continue to work with its partners and other publishers across the industry. MLG.tv is a premium online broadcast network for professional-level esports and the MLG Pro Circuit is the longest-running esports league in North America. GameBattles is the largest online gaming tournament system across consoles, PC and mobile platforms.

With over 100 million unique viewers, the esports audience is estimated to be bigger than audiences for many professional sports leagues. Creating premium content for these audiences will provide significant opportunities in ticket sales, advertising, sponsorships, licensing and merchandising. By 2017, esports is projected to have over 300 million viewers1. For the past 12 years, MLG has helped bring esports into the mainstream with broadcasts of professional gaming competitions that rival traditional sports fan engagement.

About Activision Blizzard

Activision Blizzard, Inc., a member of the S&P 500, is the world's most successful standalone interactive entertainment company. Activision Blizzard develops and publishes games based on some of the most beloved entertainment franchises, including Call of Duty®, Destiny, Skylanders®, Guitar Hero®, World of Warcraft®, StarCraft®, Diablo®, and Hearthstone®: Heroes of Warcraft™. The company is one of the FORTUNE "100 Best Companies To Work For®" 2015. Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision Blizzard has operations throughout the world, and its games are played in 196 countries. More information about Activision Blizzard and its products can be found on the company's website, www.activisionblizzard.com.

1 Newzoo
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S

SgtCobra

Member
Perhaps this can help into ensuring that Destiny's PvP component ends up being balanced for competitive gaming as well as adding custom games and monthly balance patches.

lol
 
B

belushy

Banned
Looks like MLG will still be handling Halo World Champs NA stuff. After that we'll probably never see MLG and Halo together again.
 
Northeastmonk

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
I remember back in 2005 or maybe even before then when Halo 2 was big and people were traveling to their tournaments. Now a days I don't know a single player playing in MLG and it's probably larger than it ever was. Good for them, but the taste in major league gaming is becoming more selective. If you want it, it's there and it's huge, but if you're not wanting everything to be in this "pro gamer eccentric" then you'll probably ignore it.

I know at my work we use gaming keyboards, but I wonder sometimes if it's always going to be acceptable the way it is. Sharp tribal logos, aerodynamic keyboards, gamer jerseys, and etc. I wonder how everything will look in the years to come. I sorta stopped paying attention, but now a days pro gamers I've never even heard of are doing Alienware ads and so forth.
 
D

donkey show

Member
Our acquisition of Major League Gaming’s business furthers our plans to create the ESPN of esports.
Click to expand...

ZJVbNaO.png
 
B

belushy

Banned
iZeezbruh said:
they actually have a solid lineup.

Starcraft 2, WoW, Heroes, Overwatch, Hearthstone, CoD
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Yeah I think they have a good set of games to showcase. I wonder if they will drop CoD World League after this year. Would it be cheaper to run under MLG is the question, though.
 
Z

Zunnyhh

Neo Member
Isn't this the 2nd time Blizzard acquires e-sports companies?

Cant remeber the name, but some big e-sports hosting company went bankrupt and if im not mistaken Blizzard picked up most of the employees, never saw anything come from it but lets see how this plays out.

Also - Guess there wont be any more CS:GO/Dota MLGS :(
 
V

viHuGi

Banned
belushy said:
Yeah I think they have a good set of games to showcase. I wonder if they will drop CoD World League after this year. Would it be cheaper to run under MLG is the question, though.
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Cod World League huge no way they are dropping it for the World most famous fps.
 
B

belushy

Banned
Zunnyhh said:
Isn't this the 2nd time Blizzard acquires e-sports companies?

Cant remeber the name, but some big e-sports hosting company went bankrupt and if im not mistaken Blizzard picked up most of the employees, never saw anything come from it but lets see how this plays out.

Also - Guess there wont be any more CS:GO/Dota MLGS :(
Click to expand...

No idea but they did trademark something called "Compete" in the middle of last year.

viHuGi said:
Cod World League huge no way they are dropping it for the World most famous fps.
Click to expand...

What I mean is instead running it through MLG, not exactly getting rid of it. CoD was under MLG and an MLG Pro League last year for Advanced Warfare.
 
B

Breakbeat

Banned
Activision's long term plan: "Buy it".

This purchase seems extraneous, I haven't the faintest idea why they need to control the MLG brand when they could have let it remain a dedicated, independent partner. ActiBlizz already pushes out some of the highest profile competitive games to begin with, I don't understand why they'd want the hassle of operating the whole pipe (unless the purchase was made for some paltry sum, which I doubt).

At least this isn't as harebrained as their King. com purchase. They're blowing through cash at an extraordinary rate.
 
M

MutFox

Banned
Would CoD be a different game every year like it is now?
Or would they have a version that could actually grow a community?
 
C

Corran Horn

May the Schwartz be with you
Zunnyhh said:
Isn't this the 2nd time Blizzard acquires e-sports companies?

Cant remeber the name, but some big e-sports hosting company went bankrupt and if im not mistaken Blizzard picked up most of the employees, never saw anything come from it but lets see how this plays out.

Also - Guess there wont be any more CS:GO/Dota MLGS :(
Click to expand...
Blizzard bought IPL from IGN but it was a shell of a company at the time.
 
Flintty

Flintty

Member
Damn, Activision. Another step towards world domination. Bungie achieving their ambition by default!

Destiny to be featured more heavily in Esports??
 
geordiemp

geordiemp

Member
Flintty said:
Damn, Activision. Another step towards world domination. Bungie achieving their ambition by default!

Destiny to be featured more heavily in Esports??
Click to expand...

Not with 30 FPS, Destiny needs an overhaul of frame rate and networking to be a GREAT online shooter.

And yes I went to Mercury about 30 times, but now play BO3.....mainly due to Destiny shitty LAG
 
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