Page 1300 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 3 April 2019
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
(b) the potential synergies for advertising Canberra as a foreign student destination;
(c) assisting with bringing greater attention to Canberra and working toward Canberra’s International Engagement Strategy, including direct flights; and
(d) partnerships with local gaming industry to build Canberra as an investment location for gaming studios; and
(3) calls on the ACT Government to investigate the potential of developing an e-sports strategy to attract tournaments and promote local economic growth.
I rise today to call on the ACT government to investigate the potential of developing an e-sports strategy, with the goal of attractive tournaments and promoting local economic growth through video game development. In the last five years we have seen an unprecedented boom in the electronic sports sector both worldwide and in Australia. A decade ago you could play games competitively amongst friends to win a small pool of money. Video games lacked sophistication and polish.
Quite rapidly, the video game industry began to create better graphics and more complex games, allowing more players to participate, which for some turned the hobby into a profession. The video games industry generated just shy of $138 billion in 2018, marking an 11 per cent increase in market value over the year. But it is not just big gaming companies that are profiting from this e-sports boom. Just last year a Melbourne teenager took home $3 million after winning a defence of the ancients tournament, placing his earnings above some of Australia’s top sports stars.
No longer are e-sports tournaments held in internet cafes or in basements. We have seen the e-sports industry grow to a standard where tournaments are hosted at Olympic stadiums, with the League of Legends World Championship in 2017 drawing a crowd of 40,000 to the Bird’s Nest in Beijing.
The popularity of e-sports can be attributed to the fact that they are cheap and easily accessible. Many games are free and fuelled by micro-transactions, with most revenue coming from gaming on mobile devices. Fortnite, the game that took the whole world by storm last year, surpassed $500 million in revenue. E-sports still have a lot of growing to do. Tournament viewings, such as at the League of Legends Championship, have doubled in a year. The market growth reflects this. It is projected to climb at an annual growth rate of 23 per cent.
The majority of this marketing revenue comes not only from ticket sales but also from merchandise, advertising and, increasingly, media and sponsorships. Broadcasting deals with streaming services such as Twitch have the potential to grow the industry at exponential rates, with Twitch’s streaming deal for the tournament Overwatch League generating $90 million over two years.
Interestingly, we have seen the e-sports industry shift to a model where viewers are now able to support their local e-sports teams. Currently being trialled in the US, the Overwatch League tournament assigns its teams a home city, with the company
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video