On paper, the Overwatch League sounds to be an enchanting and revolutionary idea.

There is a lot of work to do. We spent a lot of time planning. This is something that has been years in planning and discussion. We're finally at the stage we're ready to start talking about it and identify the team owners that will help us to build it up. We're also very excited about it to do something very special here with Overwatch.

What is the reasoning behind attempting to make eSports city-based?

In eSports, there's really nothing apart from the players which can distinguish teams. In regular sports, however, people can affiliate themselves with particular cities that they actually have a connection with. They can actually go to an arena and watch their team play regularly.

Building a local fan base creates a venue for economic participation, such as selling tickets and sponsorships, which as of now are nonexistent in eSports. This may be less of a problem in Korea, since they do offer fair access to matches, but if you're not near an eSports studio, you still will have a very hard time actually watching games live. In the US, there are many cities that have no eSports facilities whatsoever.

Why is Blizzard putting so much emphasis on eSports?

We certainly are increasing resources and investment. I think also we're improving the quality of our eSports production and operations - BlizzCon is a great example of that. It's the first time we're running the Overwatch World Cup. Providing a fantastic viewing experience for the fans, as well as very high quality streams - these are things we will keep in mind in the future.

First and foremost, eSports is an opportunity for us to identify, showcase and celebrate the top players in our games. There is an increasing desire and interest from our players to see how top players play and strategize. Such is a great way to learn and thus improve your own play.

There's something in eSports fans, and the rest of the world is now starting to realize how exciting eSports is. You're also seeing sponsors, broadcasters, and traditional sports team owners start to pay more attention to eSports. This is a big opportunity for us to bring in more partners to help us to take eSports to another level.

Have you been talking with local governments?

We haven't been talking to cities, but we have been talking to prospective team owners. We invited a number of them here today for the announcement. We invited all of the endemic eSports team owners who have expressed their interest in Overwatch, and a number of team owners from traditional sports leagues. MLS, European soccer teams, NBA, NFL, MLB. A good cross-section of the field are here today.

We're not talking about specific cities yet. We'll have to gauge interest and also think globally. We expect to see teams represent major cities around the world.

The Overwatch League will be a top level professional sports league. It will be considered the season. There will also be an offseason, and we expect other third party leagues to flourish during that period of time. We'll have more details on this soon.

What is the difference between the Blizzard eSports philosophy and the philosophy of other developers? How is Blizzard’s unique?

I can't speak to other game companies and their philosophies, but we think it's very important to create something that is a great experience for spectators. We want to have stability in our league for the fans, the players, and the team owners. These team owners will be purchasing a guaranteed slot in the league. They won't have to worry about being relegated, and fans won't have to worry about whether their team is going to play next year.

We think it's important for the team owners to have an economic participation in the league, so this isn't something that Blizzard is going to do all by ourselves. We need investing team owners to help build their players into stars and celebrities and to help foster local teams for fans and create good venue experiences. It's important to identify the right team managers and get sponsors for their teams. If we're able to get league sponsors and the right broadcasting partners, there's a ton of opportunities.

I think the most distinguishing characteristic [of Blizzard] is that we have the strongest portfolio of eSports games among any publisher anywhere in the world. We now have five of the top ten eSports. They're very different and have appealed to different people. We're trying to customize the approach to eSports for each franchise in a way that is most appropriate and thus does the best job of celebrating the top players.

Why do you think Overwatch was a huge success?

I think the gameplay itself is very fun. You have a diverse selection of Heroes to fit your play preference; there are Heroes for everybody, and it's very well balanced. The Overwatch team has done such a good job of creating a competitive team-based game that feels good for everybody, despite varying skill levels. I had a great time playing, and the art style is beautiful.

Though there's a special panel prepared tomorrow for DeepMind and StarCraft 2, we'd like to hear from you now. How did all this collaboration with DeepMind start?

I think, right after AlphaGo's match, there was a question in Korea about what would be next after GO. Their response was: "Maybe StarCraft." I think a lot of people paid attention to that. We certainly did.

We reached out to DeepMind shortly after that comment and said, "Hey, let's talk," and they were very interested. We weren't sure that we would be ready to introduce it at BlizzCon, but they agreed to come out in every part of the opening ceremony.

It's a such a difficult challenge. What we have announced is that we're opening an API interface for artificial intelligence research. Google is happy to share StarCraft as a platform for AI research in the future. I don’t think anybody’s making any predictions yet on when we’ll have something to look at, or when this AI is ready to start playing against people. We're certainly very eager to see what happens.

It's Blizzard's 25th anniversary. How are you going to continue in the next 25 years, and how will you change the future?

Though there were some concerns about the absence of our veteran developers, there are many creative leaders across Blizzard whose names you may not know. And it's pretty natural for people to come and go. If you look at the quality of the teams we have across the company, both in development and all of our operations, we don’t get burned out.

I don't know if they're building another hall because we don't have enough space, but we’re looking forward to using it in the future. Generally, after every BlizzCon, we take a rest and immediately speak about how we can do better next year. So you can count on us for BlizzCon next year too.

Source article by Inven Sawual