FXOBoSs's Insights: All this e-sports business talk has gotten me thinking

fxoboss:

Its time to bring back the warning message that I have stated a few times before.

This blog is my personal blog. I blog about random things, e-sports things, business things and sometimes completely stupid things. So please be aware that I do not plan to write my thesis in this blog. Punctuation…

I would say go for it. The huge backlash against Sundance for the $20 PPV model was because the people vilifying him don’t have any disposable income of their own (they are kids, or don’t have jobs, or are in college, etc.). They’re not exactly the maturest bunch, and are used to getting MLG content for free. Ergo, when they’re told they have to pay now and they can’t, they respond in ways that aren’t particularly productive. Even though many are saying “if it was $10 it would be okay”, truth is if Sundance started at a $10 price point, he’d still get vilified by these people and asked “why not $5? I’d pay if it was $5”. They’re just looking to get the best deal, where the best deal is ideally “free to view”.

That’s an entirely different situation from the idea that someone is making a profit in the e-sports industry. To be frank, nearly all of those people who are demonizing Sundance now actually think people are profitable in the e-sports industry, even when they’re told otherwise. They can’t understand how a live stream could have 50k concurrent viewers and not generate enough ad revenue to put them in the black. They don’t understand the costs involved in pulling off a good e-sports production (remember, we’re talking about the financially challenged, here, so it’s not entirely unsurprising). Anyway, point is they think you are already profitable. In other words, I’d be quite surprised to see them go for your jugular when you actually are making money, if they aren’t already doing so now.

Having said that, let’s say I’m wrong about this. Let’s say you will get dragged across the coals for creating a viable business model in the e-sports industry. I still think it’s worth it. If there’s one thing you can call these cheap, usually young e-sports viewers that start all these witch hunts, namely in the StarCraft community, it would be fickle. They love you one day, hate you the next, love you again the day after that. If you’re the guy that discovered how to make e-sports profitable, you’ll be remembered admirably for that, even if people bring out the pitchforks at first. I’ll end this with a modified quote:

“Because he’s the hero e-sports deserves, but not the one it needs right now. So we’ll hunt him because he can take it. Because he’s not our hero. He’s a silent guardian, a watchful protector. A dark knight.”

Be the Batman of e-sports, FXOBoSs.

7 notes
Posted on Monday, 20 February
Reblogged from: fxoboss
Posted by: fxoboss
  1. torabu reblogged this from fxoboss and added:
    would say go for it. The huge backlash against Sundance for the $20 PPV model was because the people vilifying him...
  2. caterpillarcowboy said: Pretty sure it’s not a zero sum game. Your success can grow the pie for everyone.
  3. fxoboss posted this