There are developers that have supported competitive gaming and eSports over the years. Blizzard patched Starcraft and Warcraft 3 constantly since their respective releases. Capcom has been a supporter and sponsor of a number of worldwide events. It could be even be argued, that the multiplayer element of Halo has essentially remained unchanged due to its success as a competitive title. iD Software host the yearly QuakeCon event and made modding tools available which contributed to the lifespan of Quake 3 as a competitive title. Leading up to the release of Quake Live the author of the Challenge ProMode Arena mod, Kevin ‚arQon‘ Blenkinsopp, was hired as a contractor. 2010 saw the release of a number of AAA titles, but the focus has shifted over time from a solid single player experience to a prolonged multiplayer experience. One of the reasons given for this is the growth of trade-ins. The highly anticipated releases of Halo: Reach, with release day sales of $200m, and Call of Duty: Black Ops are proof of this. Treyarch has acknowledged the importance of multiplayer in the run up to the release of Black Ops and stated, “Multiplayer is critical to the success of this series.” Of course, 2010 also saw the release of Starcraft 2, but the focus of this series was never on the single player side.
”However, 2010 saw a change in attitudes from developers who appeared to recognise the importance of multiplayer and this stands to benefit the eSport scene.“ It is evident that more developers are seeing the value of a strong multiplayer element. With it, potentially, comes the aspect of competitive gaming. Call of Duty has become a franchise at this stage with 14 releases across a number of platforms since 2003. Recent releases have demonstrated the value of a strong multiplayer element with millions of players logging on and maintaining activity over the life cycle of each release. Treyarch said that multiplayer “has such tremendous staying power”. It has been knocking at the door of the competitive circuit with various releases but hasn’t been fully accepted yet. The successes of Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2 will be emulated in future releases, with Black Ops feeling oddly familiar despite being a new game.
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