This review of Sunday nights Game of Thrones episode is not going to be spoiler free, so dear reader if you have the heart to be spoiled or if you too are following currently airing
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Esports is HUGE, over 21% of Twitch total viewerships HUGE
Posted on April 7, 2016 by Fionna Schweit
It should come as no suprise that E-sports is not some passing trend. If million dollar events and rented out sports arenas for spectators arent enough to tell you that, Twitch just released their 2015 look back and it contains some not so surprising facts about the world of esports. Newzoo has kindly taken that data from that report and summarized it here and ill give you the jist of it now. ” “Twitch was the true accelerator of the growth of esports in the West, esports has helped Twitch grow to the massive live video platform it is today. more than 21 percent of “all hours watched” on Twitch from July to December 2015 was dedicated to esports” Holy swear word batman thats a lot of hours of League, DOTA2, Heroes of the Storm, and the half dozen other smaller mobas (sorry Smite you dont get in with the big dogs).
Mobas even accounted for the majority of Twitch esports viewership, with 58 percent of the total hours watched during the second half of the year, most of it dedicated to League of Legends and Dota 2. Shooter were a distant second with only 27% and finally strategy and others making up just 14% of total viewership. Most of the 10% of strategy category was Hearthstone, which properly should have its own section since its a card game, but Twitch has chosen to lump it in (likley to keep MOBA from eclipsing the 70% mark).
Newzoo also found that “esports engagement” varied rather dramatically around the industry. “47 percent of StarCraft 2 hours viewed were esports centered compared to just 13 percent of the hours spent on Hearthstone, which has a relatively larger group of non-esports viewers.” The report said. The study also found that, while major events drove high levels of traffic, they also pulled eyes away from user-generated content: During the first three Saturdays of the NALCS, user-made content viewership was down 44 percent compared to the preceding three Saturdays. Not really a suprise there as Twitch tends to feature those sponsored sports event streams on their front page.
This graphic is a good visual representation of what the report says, you can see that during the LCS event there number of esports hours was far higher as a percent of consumer hours spent on Twitch.
Newzoo closes by saying: “The importance of esports for Twitch is reflected in its continued partnerships with publishers who are growing their franchises as esports titles, the latest of these partnerships include Psyonix’s Rocket League and Super Evil MegaCorp’s mobile MOBA Vainglory. The latter also received a multi-million dollar investment from Twitch itself.” Twitch is seems is fully commited to their current strategy for Esports, and I like many other wait with baited breath to see what they will do next.
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2nd Annual Game Awards Report
Posted on December 4, 2015 by Fionna Schweit
Last night was the second annual Game Awards, with a full line up of presenters, world game premiers, and musical acts. Most people probably came for the world premieres, of which there were several. Included were: Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, Shaq-Fu: A Legend Reborn, a Telltale Games Batman title, Far Cry Primal, Psychonauts 2, Quantum Break, Rock Band VR, Shadow Complex Remastered, Rocket League‘s Xbox One release, Star Citizen, and The Walking Dead: Michonne.
This is of course also an awards show so here is a list of winners and some of my reactions from the event:
GAME OF THE YEAR: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (CD Projekt Red/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment) – The polish studio behind The Witcher 3 really cleaned up this year, taking home several big awards. I guess I need to play it, since it was really off my radar since it’s a seriously large game that takes so much investment. Im not surprised this happened with the scale and scope, but it did have to beat out Fallout 4 and MGS:V
DEVELOPER OF THE YEAR: CD Projekt Red – Ok I was surprised at this, I haven’t had a chance to play The Witcher 3 yet, but I know it’s a huge beautiful game, but I thought with two huge games this year Nintendo was a for sure this one.
BEST INDEPENDENT GAME: Rocket League (Psyonix) – This one actually kind of disappointed me, the other choices were Axion Verge, Her Story, Ori and the Blind forest and Undertale. All of which I think have better story since well Rocket League doesn’t have a story. There are way too many indie games for this award to work, like did anyone consider Besiege, or Honey pop (ok that’s a joke). The guys at Psyonix deserve this for sure but I think its hard to nail this category since it just has so many things.
BEST MOBILE/HANDHELD GAME: Lara Croft Go (Square Enix Montreal/Square Enix) – Ok this one was hands down going to Laura Croft go, no questions. If you haven’t checked it out do so. The only real competitor here was maybe the Vault game from Bethesda but the two are super different.
BEST NARRATIVE: Her Story (Sam Barlow) – Her story is not a game that I played, or even heard about at all before this awards show, I honestly disagree with this one it should have been Life is Strange, which I adored.
BEST ART DIRECTION: Ori and the Blind Forest (Moon Studios/Microsoft Studios) – Not surprised here, the bright color pallet and whimsical imagery win this one over the darker tones of most modern AAA games.
BEST SCORE/SOUNDTRACK: Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain (Ludvig Forssell, Justin Burnett, Daniel James/Kojima Productions) – Get what you pay for here, MGS:V was a great game, with amazing visuals, great sound, and a story that mostly did a good job, a well-deserved win here.
BEST PERFORMANCE: Viva Seifert (Her Story) – Other than the presenter confusing the game that won this award, I found myself again surprised that a game that was so under the radar cleaned up so well. I’m sure Viva’s performance was brilliant and this win means I need to check out Her Story for sure.
GAMES FOR CHANGE: Life is Strange (Dontnod Entertainment/Square Enix) – At least Life is Strange gets the nod here, I can’t help but think this is mostly because the main protagonist is a member of the LGBT community and thus the game focuses on some of those issues, but it’s nice to see the shout out.
BEST SHOOTER: Splatoon (Nintendo EAD Group No. 2/Nintendo) – I am so glad this won. Splatoon is one of the best games of this year, and I am really glad to see it receive recognition for what it is an amazing multiplayer shooter.
BEST ACTION/ADVENTURE GAME: Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain (Kojima Productions/Konami) – Glad to see that Metal Gears Open world playground gets this award. The game is amazing, and if you haven’t played it go do it, that’s all I can say.
BEST ROLE-PLAYING GAME: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (CD Projekt Red/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment) – Another win for the polish CD Projekt Red, since this was one of the only major RPGs to come out this year I wasn’t super surprised.
BEST FIGHTING GAME: Mortal Kombat X (NetherRealm Studios/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment) *Disclaimer I know nothing about fighting games* Iv played this game at the arcade, and it’s a pretty game, but its also the only AAA fighter released this year, so the win is a gimme.
BEST FAMILY GAME: Super Mario Maker (Nintendo EAD Group No. 4/Nintendo) – Seeing Nintendo getting the shout outs at a major game awards show still feels really odd to me, but this has been an amazing year for Nintendo,
BEST SPORTS/RACING GAME: Rocket League (Psyonix) – there are other sports racing games?
BEST MULTIPLAYER: Splatoon (Nintendo EAD Group No. 2/Nintendo) – This one I kinda disagree with, there were other great multiplayer games this year, and while Splatoon was the most original I don’t think it was the best and most polished. I really liked the idea of MGS:V winning this for Metal Gear online, but it didn’t happen.
MOST ANTICIPATED GAME: No Man’s Sky (Hello Games) – Can we stop giving the award to this game please? I get it ok, people want No Man’s sky, and have since they announced it like 4 years ago.
ESPORTS PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Kenny “KennyS” Schrub (Counter-Strike: Global Offensive/Team EnVyUs) – This was a surprise to me, and it was less surprising than the next win.
ESPORTS TEAM OF THE YEAR: Optic Gaming – woah, surprised here, expected this to be a League Team or at least DOTA2.
ESPORTS GAME OF THE YEAR: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (Valve) – this is a given since its getting its own League on cable TV. With the annoucment that we will be getting a show on TBS on Friday nights and with over a million dollars up for grabs, CS:GO is going to win this no problem.
TRENDING GAMER: Greg Miller – who? Sorry but I have no idea who that is, honestly and I watch a lot of YouTube. Props to greg for the win, guess I know who he is now.
BEST FAN CREATION: Portal Stories: Mel (Prism Studios) – this flew under the radar, but it was really an amazing fan creation, playing portal again really made me happy and honestly made me wish for another portal game.
And that’s about that. The awards are still run by Geoff Keighkey and this year the aestitic shifted from spikes MAN MAN MAN style of last year, over to a cyber-styling that I really enjoyed. Also of note was Hideo Kojimas absence, apparently due to a legal issue with his (fromer?) employer Konami. Geoff called out Konami on how they were treating their golden goose. This was graet to hear. There was also a major tribute (like 15 minutes) to Satoru Iwata who’s genius is one of the major reasons Nintendo exits as a game company today.
There was also a huge packed line up of game trailers, premiers and additional information about already out games, take a look at all the video content below the drop
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