Activision Blizzard Forming eSports Division
Activision Blizzard announced earlier today that they will be forming an eSports division that is intended to "build on the Company’s competitive gaming leadership by creating all-new ways to deliver the best-in-class fan experience across games, platforms and geographies, furthering the development of its world-leading esports ecosystem." It's quite the goal, albeit a bit vague. Details as a whole are fairly scarce, other than the leadership involved. The former CEO of ESPN and the NFL Network Mike Bornstein will be serving as the division's Chairman. The former President and co-founder of Major League Gaming Mike Sepso will be serving as the division's Senior Vice President.
Bobby Kotick was quoted saying quite a bit about the new initiative. Some choice quotes include “Celebrating our players and their unique skill, dedication and commitment is the essence of our esports initiatives” and “Blizzard Entertainment and Activision Publishing have been leaders in the development of esports. With that leadership, our strong franchises, our deep history and experience in esports and now two additional industry leaders, we intend to further enhance our efforts and make certain this remains an important growth driver for Activision Blizzard.” Steve Bornstein was quoted saying that "Activision Blizzard created entertainment that was viewed and played by over 150 million people for more than 13 billion hours,” which is quite impressive. Also included in the press release is the fact that Destiny has become the "most watched console game on Twitch" since it launched.
