Earlier this year it was discovered that Activision, the publisher of popular FPS title “Call of Duty”, was seeking a “Global Product Management Lead – eSports”. This lead to many community members around the scene, including us, to speculate about Activision’s intentions moving towards the future of esports. In a piece entitled “Possibility of Activision Takeover?” as part of “The Web” series, I outlined how I believed the company would be transitioning to a more authoritarian style leadership and bringing a united esports experience across all of the company’s brands. It seems like I might have been right.
Today it was announced that Activision has hired Steve Bornstein, the former CEO of ESPN and the NFL Network, as their new head of esports. On top of this, they’ve also brought on Mike Sespo, who up until now was the President of MLG, to work under Bornstein.
But these changes and hirings don’t stop at just Activision. For those of you unaware, Activision is just one half of a larger company known as “Activision Blizzard”, the other half of course being popular game developer “Blizzard Entertainment”. This new esports division will be working with both sides of the company, including Blizzard’s popular games Starcraft, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm and the soon to be FPS game Overwatch. Blizzard’s games are some of the most prestigious in all of esports, Starcraft being a prestigious game since the original 1998 game.
How do you think this new esports focused division will turn out? Let us know in the comments below and remember to follow use here at eSports Guru for all your competitive gaming needs!
