{"id":633192,"date":"2023-04-21T09:56:15","date_gmt":"2023-04-21T14:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/21\/we-have-a-lot-of-teams-who-are-out-in-the-marketplace-and-theyre-struggling-a-qa-with-riot-games-esports-head-john-needham\/"},"modified":"2023-04-21T09:56:15","modified_gmt":"2023-04-21T14:56:15","slug":"we-have-a-lot-of-teams-who-are-out-in-the-marketplace-and-theyre-struggling-a-qa-with-riot-games-esports-head-john-needham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/21\/we-have-a-lot-of-teams-who-are-out-in-the-marketplace-and-theyre-struggling-a-qa-with-riot-games-esports-head-john-needham\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We have a lot of teams who are out in the marketplace, and they\u2019re struggling\u2019: A Q&A with Riot Games esports head John Needham"},"content":{"rendered":"
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April 21, 2023\u00a0\u00a0\u2022\u00a0\u00a07 min read<\/span> \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 By Alexander Lee<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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On Wednesday, Riot Games president of esports John Needham published a blog post<\/a> outlining his company\u2019s vision for the future of competitive gaming. The post directly addressed many of the flashpoint issues of the embattled esports industry \u2014\u00a0including esports organizations\u2019 struggles to turn a profit and Riot\u2019s plans to help staunch the bleeding.<\/p>\n

The blog post comes during a period of considerable uncertainty for the esports industry. As longstanding esports companies such as Beyond the Summit<\/a> and CLG<\/a> shut down or search for acquisition partners, some investors and industry observers are losing confidence in competitive gaming\u2019s ability to generate sustainable profits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Riot might be one of the better-prepared esports companies to help correct the course of the industry. Its marquee titles, \u201cLeague of Legends\u201d and \u201cValorant,\u201d regularly draw millions of viewers and drive ample sales of in-game items, making Riot\u2019s involvement in esports into a lucrative endeavor. Now, the company is looking to share some of the spoils with the esports teams in its ecosystem in a bid to help keep the industry afloat.<\/p>\n

To learn more about the vision and strategy behind Riot\u2019s blog post, Digiday spoke with Needham for an annotated Q&A.<\/p>\n

This conversation has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n

On the timing of the blog post<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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John Needham:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

We have a lot of teams who are out in the marketplace; they\u2019re trying to source new sponsors and new investors, and they\u2019re struggling, frankly. A lot of it has to do with uncertainty about general economic conditions, but another part of it is just the narrative that\u2019s out there around esports. And a lot of that is how other publishers have run their esports \u2014 which isn\u2019t Riot\u2019s way. No, as in most things, Riot is just very player-focused and team-focused as a company, and we take it seriously, our business relationship with teams. So it was trying to dispel some of the narrative around how other publishers have approached esports.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Digiday:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Needham didn\u2019t mention any other game developers by name, but it\u2019s not hard to read between the lines in this answer. At the moment, Activision Blizzard is at odds with the esports teams in its Overwatch League, with the majority of teams hiring a law firm to start a collective bargaining process<\/a> against Activision Blizzard in January. By promising to create more opportunities for esports teams to share in the profits, Riot might be looking to avoid a similar blow-up on its end.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

On Riot\u2019s strategy for selling broadcast rights in esports<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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John Needham:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I can tell you we are not focused on that right now for two reasons. One, we don\u2019t think that doing exclusive broadcast deals is something that\u2019s player- or fan-friendly; we have a philosophy around being everywhere that our players are, and doing exclusive broadcast deals runs counter to that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For the platforms that do pay for premium content, like we produce around esports, we just don\u2019t think it\u2019s a good audience fit at all. So we want to be where our audience is, and we want to be on the platforms where we can serve our audience best \u2014 and that\u2019s the streaming audience right now.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Digiday:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Given esports leagues\u2019 struggles to secure broadcast rights deals in the past, it\u2019s fair for Riot to focus on alternative revenue streams in the near future. But when you look at the fact that over 60 percent of traditional sports teams\u2019 revenues<\/a> come from media deals, it still feels like billions of dollars are being left on the table as long as esports competitions are streamed free-of-charge. To be fair, Needham\u2019s blog post explicitly avoids comparisons to the traditional sports industry, stating that \u201cthe esports business is going to be more like the games business.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

On Riot\u2019s fighting game project \u2018Project L\u2019 and the future role of fighting games in Riot\u2019s esports ecosystem<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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John Needham:<\/strong><\/p>\n

We haven\u2019t architected how we\u2019re going to run esports for \u201cProject L,\u201d but we are very excited about it, and we do have a strategy around how we approach new esports. We very much look to the community and their needs, and we try to design around that. So for \u201cProject L,\u201d specifically, we know that events like EVO<\/a> are a very important part of that community, and we\u2019ve already talked to PlayStation about how we can be part of that event. We\u2019ll see how that evolves over the next few years.<\/p>\n

But I think \u201cProject L\u201d as an esport is going to be very different from \u201cValorant,\u201d \u201cLeague of Legends\u201d or what we do with \u201cTeamfight Tactics,\u201d just because that scene, and that community, has different expectations for what they want to see. So we are very excited about it \u2014 we will make a major esports play supporting \u201cProject L.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Digiday:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fighting games are particularly strong drivers<\/a> of esports fandom, so entering the fighting game community is just good business sense for Riot Games. Popular fighting games such as \u201cSuper Smash Bros.\u201d have traditionally been neglected by their developers<\/a>, and many members of the Smash scene are desperate to compete in an esport with actual developer support. Once \u201cProject L\u201d comes out, it will almost certainly have a vibrant competitive scene from day one.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

On the inflated player salaries plaguing the esports industry<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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John Needham:<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the difficult parts is being an international sport, because there are just different laws and regulations in different regions around the world. So, have we looked at things like salary caps and luxury tax systems and mechanisms like that to help teams? Yes, but we have not found anything yet that we could roll out on an international level.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I think one of the things we\u2019re going to see with some of the teams struggling is, unfortunately, that player salaries will probably be going down over the next few years, as teams try to survive through this bad situation we\u2019re in. But we do not currently have any plans to impose any sort of salary caps or anything like that.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Digiday:<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret that the esports salary market is headed for a correction<\/a>, but Riot is confident that the invisible hand will guide these changes without any need for explicit regulation. But while player salaries are undeniably inflated in esports, the players themselves have grown accustomed to their relatively high pay, and reduced salaries will likely cause friction between esports teams and their talent. Cutting down on salaries is probably necessary to ensure the future of esports, but it isn\u2019t going to come easily.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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https:\/\/digiday.com\/?p=500366<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Read More<\/a>
\n Alexander Lee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April 21, 2023\u00a0\u00a0\u2022\u00a0\u00a07 min read \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 By Alexander Lee On Wednesday, Riot Games president of esports John Needham published a blog post outlining his company\u2019s vision for the future of competitive gaming. The post directly addressed many of the flashpoint issues of the embattled esports industry \u2014\u00a0including esports organizations\u2019 struggles to turn a profit and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":633193,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39587,22152,46],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-633192","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-we","8":"category-teams","9":"category-technology"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}