This week the Open Gaming Alliance publicly welcomed eSports broadcaster Azubu as its latest member and launched a new eSports Special Interest Group to support and promote the growth of — you guessed it — games as eSports.
It’s a minor but notable bit of news because it further elucidates how the notion of playing games competitively, as a spectator sport that may soon rival traditional sports in terms of audience, is gaining significant traction and support in the game industry.
Azubu recently raised $59 million from investors to challenge Twitch, and now that it’s become a corporate member of the OGA Azubu CEO Ian Sharpe will co-chair the non-profit game industry trade group’s new eSports SIG.
He’ll be working alongside co-chair Drew Holt-Kentwell, the founder of Singapore-based consulting agency Catalyst eSports Solutions, and their remit includes “promoting growth, research, best practices and opportunities in eSports, as well as providing a forum for discussing issues related to this rapidly growing sector.”
Over the summer the OGA expanded to encompass indies and new tech, creating new (and comparatively cheap) membership options and launching new SIGS for (among other things) VR/AR games and indie games.
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2015