A Tough Games Industry in an Even Tougher Time for Esports

Esports is facing a tough uphill battle, and it certainly isn’t getting any easier.

Between 2000 and 2015, esports was bubbling. Everyone wanted to be part of it, and nobody wanted to be left out. There were players, teams, organizations, LAN events and organizers — and anyone who wanted to be involved could help build something.

But someone once said: “When the municipality starts organizing punk concerts, punk is dead.”

Unfortunately, I think we are getting pretty close to that point.

Municipalities, schools and other organizations are now organizing esports events and talking about esports. We have even reached a point where municipalities are asking for esports activities while we sometimes have to say no, simply because we don’t think it attracts enough people.

I honestly never thought we would get to that point.

I’m not saying esports is dead. But esports has always struggled to stand on its own, and that is unfortunately becoming very clear right now.

CS2 is struggling to attract new players. League of Legends is still bringing in new players, but much of that growth is happening in game modes that are not connected to esports. At the same time, there are fewer esports tournaments, fewer major investments, and fewer fans around esports than we have been used to.

We run events for gamers. We have open activities where young people can come and play, socialize and get involved. There are tournaments, activities, organizations and structures. Everything is there, and a lot of it is well organized.

And maybe that is actually part of the problem.

When we started our organization and our first LAN events, gaming was a subculture. We were different. We were doing something that not everyone understood.

But we were also the future.

Today, gaming is no longer something secret or strange. Dads are telling their kids how they should play and which games are good. And, just like with everything else, you hear:

“Back in my day, it was better.”

Gaming as a youth culture simply isn’t the same thing anymore.

So how do we turn this around in the middle of this enormous uphill battle?

We have expensive technology. We have a games industry where we constantly hear about companies going bankrupt. Events being shut down. Studios closing. Projects that never see the light of day.

It has even gotten to the point where we no longer talk as much about values and what the companies in this industry actually stand for.

So how do we engage new generations of young people and children? How do we make them want to see and feel what we once saw and felt?

The facts are pretty clear: gaming is not going to grow by itself. Esports is not going to survive simply because the games exist. It doesn’t come for free.

Maybe games have reached the same position as music, film, and sports already have.

Maybe we have to accept that gaming is no longer a subculture.

It is part of society.

And maybe we therefore have to adapt to being part of everything else, rather than trying to remain something outside of it.

But that leads to the next question:

How do we find the next generation of esports players, event organizers, writers and game developers when there is no longer the same wow factor? When there is no longer a clear sense of being an outsider to bring people together?

When gaming is already everywhere.

We also can’t just say:

“Back in my day, this was fun.”

Because it was.

But that doesn’t mean the next generation will find the same things fun.

Maybe that is our biggest challenge right now.

We have to find what makes the next generation feel the same way we once did.

Not by recreating our time.

But by creating theirs.