14 DAY TRIAL // Electronic Arts' newly appointed CEO, Andrew Wilson, has expressed his faith in eSports and confirmed that the large publisher will begin to get more involved in this great avenue of the gaming industry.
The global eSports scene is growing by leaps and bounds, benefitting from large experiences like League of Legends or Dota 2, not to mention perennial favorites like Starcraft 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, or FIFA.
The latter game, however, hasn't exactly benefitted from support in terms of eSports, as Electronic Arts never tried to use the game's popularity to boost its sales figures or to add more tools that would make competitive FIFA games more appealing.
The newly appointed CEO of the large publisher, Andrew Wilson, who formerly led the development of FIFA, has other plans and wants to help eSports grow in the near future.
He has talked with Red Bull recently and confirmed that eSports benefits not just the actual players but also the viewers and that the whole phenomenon will grow in the future.
"One of the cool motivations of why people play games is social connection and social interaction. And what eSports does either through the playing of the game or watching people play the game is really bring people together around great, creative entertainment," he said.
"I actually think it’s going to continue to grow. When we’ve just come off franchise reviews I looked at a number of properties that we’re doing that certainly have an eSports focus to it. As a company, we believe this is something that’s going to continue to grow."
Wilson has emphasized the new interest in eSports at Electronic Arts and confirmed that some of the games based on actual sports, like soccer or football, can lend themselves easily to competitions. The company is also interested in seeing what other franchises and projects can result in eSports, so big things are coming.
"We have some ready-made franchises for this in our sports properties, but we also have a number of other franchises that people may not typically think about as eSports opportunities, but we think there might be an opportunity in the future, so it’s something that you’re going to see more of from us."
Battlefield 4, the latest first-person shooter from Electronic Arts' DICE studio, is also enjoying a lot of popularity in terms of eSports, so it's going to be interesting to see how EA and its global teams will continue supporting competitions based on their games.