14 DAY TRIAL // Developer Red 5 has added a number of spectator and broadcaster options to its multiplayer online first game, which mixes first-person shooter and role-playing mechanics in order to capture a slice of the growing eSports market and help the title grow.
Morgan Romine, who is the eSports export working at Red 5, has told PC Gamer that, “If you know Counter-Strike really well then you know what’s going on but if you’re not familiar with Counter-Strike in the first place then it’s not that interesting to watch.”
He added, “We lose out as an eSports community when we can’t bring new people into the fold by showing them all the exciting stuff that’s going on. I’m hoping that this toolkit is going to allow us to translate the excitement of what’s going on to the spectators who are watching.”
Firefall now allows players to use a free camera to follow any part of the action they like or a top-down view that’s designed specifically to capture the general situation with a quick look at the playing field.
The developers have also added an action camera that automatically moves to the areas where the battle is the most fierce to keep spectators up to date.
Many developers have tried to mix first-person shooter and role-playing elements in the multiplayer online genre but few have managed that.
At the moment Firefall is in closed beta, with the developers at Red 5 currently adding more players, and that game is expected to launch late this year or early in 2013.
Its most important competitor will probably be the Sony Online Entertainment Planetside 2.
A tournament will be held during the Gamescome 2012 industry event and will offer the best players a chance to get prizes out of a total of 10,000 Euro (12,296 dollars).
