Esports have experienced a meteoric rise the past few years, and now, family entertainment centers (FECs) are investigating how they can benefit. This was the focus of the education session, “FEC: Experts Weigh in on Esports.”
Andy Babb is the chief games officer for Super League Gaming, which has conducted some 5,000 esports IRL (In Real Life) events. He said Super League Gaming likes these events because instead of gamers sitting at home by themselves, they come in person to movie theaters, gaming centers, and now FECs to compete.
“They love how social it is,” he said. “Competitions take place [simultaneously] in different locations, and then we stream what’s going on in all the locations.” He said FECs must figure out which esports games they want to offer, have the proper online bandwidth, choose whether to ask players to bring their own equipment or provide equipment, and be able to provide power to players.
Babb asserted the need to “work smarter,” which he said includes utilizing mobile games because they are set up for lower bandwidths; in the reverse, he said PC gaming is expensive, and the equipment quickly becomes obsolete. Babb said the need for FECs to determine their target market and have numerous trial runs to work out the bugs. He urged FECs to secure sponsorship partners to help with funding.
Billy Forney, CEO of Palace Social, talked about what his FEC has experienced during the first four months of operating an esports lounge and said until recently, it’s been the poster child for what not to do. In reviewing the lessons learned, Forney said great marketing is absolutely crucial. Otherwise, gamers are not going to come to an FEC and spend money to play esports when they can play for free at home.
He said the key is stressing the social setting to gamers and revealed that when Palace Social recently launched a channel on Discord for its esports lounge, it experienced significant activity as players routinely socialized on the channel.
Forney then revealed that though his FEC’s first esports tournament wasn’t successful, it had a gaming influencer attend who “loved the lounge” and used the video gaming platform Twitch to tell others about it. He then said he would work with Palace Social to drive gamers to its lounge.
Chanel Summers, vice president of creative development for VRstudios, discussed Real-Sport Esports, which incorporates intense physical sports, like basketball and football, into its offerings. She said these games attract nontraditional esports players and have a bright future in the esports landscape.