Ever since the first arcade titles included scoring options, competition was a part of the gaming experience. With the introduction of head-to-head play, we had found infinite new ways to compete, limited only by the imaginations of developers and the hardware of each era. Today, we take eSports for granted as a cornerstone of gaming, but getting here was a long journey.
From home systems to the tournaments watched internationally by millions, the last couple of decades alone have been filled with hops, skips, and leaps forward in eSports adaption. It’s not just the viewing that has changed either, as the success of eSports has also fundamentally reshaped the types of games that are released, and where series set their focus. For good or bad, every developer needs to consider eSports in their efforts, with often infamously mixed results.
Future Forward
Arcades set the groundwork for eSports gaming, but it was home systems that revealed how successful these forms of competition could become. Doom, with its third-party Dial-up Wide-Area Network Game Operation, or DWANGO, took the first steps by letting modem players connect over phone lines to early dedicated multiplayer servers. In 1994, this hugely popular concept eventually manifested as official networked multiplayer extensions of titles like Quake.
“Quake III Arena q3f2” (CC BY 2.0) by daves_archive1
As multiplayer gaming continued to take the early net by storm, big game developers would sense a changing of the winds, and the first AAA games to cater to the online sphere would arrive. Unreal Tournament and Quake 3, both released in 1999, abandoned detailed story modes in favor of games built on online competition. While single-player fans might have lamented the change, millions of others cheered the arrival of the first big eSports titles.
It was these titles, especially Quake 3, that made the biggest news in the West with invitation tournaments. Lead players like Johnathan “Fatality” Wendel became the first eSports stars to gain fame in America, while pro-StarCraft players in South Korea were starting to receive similar attention. Just as importantly, the success of these titles proved to developers just how important and lucrative multiplayer gaming could be.
Console Access
Quake and StarCraft were continuously raising the bar of multiplayer competition, but they were still limited to the PC space. Consoles, while powerful and more accessible, were behind computers in the online space, and somebody had to step up. The first console to try its hand in the online space was Sega’s last console, the Dreamcast, which was released in 1998. Though forward-thinking, the console eventually failed in both sales and making its mark.
“GOM TV Studios” (CC BY 2.0) by jareed
The first console to really nail online infrastructure was the Xbox with the launch of Xbox Live in 2002. Manufacturer Microsoft was no stranger to the online world, and by watching eSports and gaming closely, it knew console online access was a must. Early Xbox Live brought online console gaming to the masses, which was consolidated with the record-breaking success of 2004’s Halo 2. With Halo 2, mainstream competition became available on both desktops and consoles, and there was no slowing down.
Fighting for Space
Generations of PC and console gaming went by, and a few big names made themselves known in the eSports space. Counter-Strike was one such hit in FPS games, while League of Legends cemented itself as the successor to the Warcraft 3’s Defense of the Ancients mod. Both of these titles are still successful today, with League of Legends betting extending the scope of involvement beyond just playing and viewing.
With events like the Mid-Season Invitational receiving millions of views and a huge number of bets across the world, eSports is now officially established in the entertainment zeitgeist. Even if you’re not familiar with teams like the Golden Guardians or PSG Talon, anyone with knowledge of gaming and gambling will understand what 1.4 and 2.7 odds represent as these two sides go into battle.
Despite the success of these major names, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing. Games like LoL continue to breed imitators vying for a piece of the pie. The problem is, the market for eSports titles is increasingly saturated, making breaking in a difficult pursuit. Sometimes, this fighting can manifest as a new project which quickly falls into obscurity. At worst, chasing the eSports ideal can lead to genre shifts in established series which cost so much and fail so drastically that long-running franchises are abandoned.
“League of Legends” (CC BY 2.0) by wuestenigel
We know for sure that eSports are here to stay, and for the overall health of the gaming market, that’s a very good thing. From humble home origins, the big winners of modern games can take home hundreds of thousands of dollars, which is exciting for any wannabe pro. We can only hope that developers and publishers understand that the major franchises can be impossible to challenge, to stop sacrificing our favorite games on the eSports altar of increasingly unlikely profit.
