Blizzard and KeSPA Fight Over Blizzard eSports Leagues

Blizzard is apparently fed up with the problems it has been having with the Korea eSports Players Association and is now seeking a new partner in South Korea to develop the competitive scene for the upcoming StarCraft II.

Mike Morhaime, who is the president and a co-founder of Blizzard, talked to Yonhap News, revealing that “We've been negotiating with the association about intellectual property rights for the last three years, and we've made no progress at all.” He added, “We're going to stop negotiating with them and look for a new partner. Blizzard obviously has the IP rights to the StarCraft series, but those rights aren't being respected, and we can't keep having these fruitless negotiations with the release of StarCraft II at hand.”

The problem is probably linked with the right to broadcast StarCraft competitive matches, which the KeSPA is controlling at the moment. Blizzard is aiming to break the monopoly by supporting an online streaming service showing matches, called GOM TV, but KeSPA has said that those teams who take part in the events of the online broadcaster might find themselves kicked from the organization.

Some have speculated that pressure from KeSPA led to the tough 18+ rating, which StarCraft II received earlier in the month in South Korea. The organization is aiming to limit the popularity of the new strategy videogame and make sure that the original StarCraft remains the most popular eSports videogame in the country. Blizzard has said that it will work with the ratings board in order to lower the rating and make sure that as many players as possible get access to the new RTS.

At the moment, StarCraft II is in beta stage and it seems that the promise from Blizzard that the game will be out before July of this year might not be kept.