Is Major League Gaming Reinventing Income Sources for Pro Players

Posted by K.L. on February 5, 2011 in Competitive Gaming, Gaming 5 comments

A major topic of concern for many players that compete within Major League Gaming’s Pro Circuit has always been Prize payouts. Every year there is a disgruntled bunch that always clamor for increased prize payouts and every year the prize payouts stay about the same. I have mentioned in previous articles of the opportunities for players to generate other sources of income to support their gaming careers, however this article is going to focus on what MLG is doing and can do to ensure a more stable environment for competitive gaming’s prominent personalities.

Content Driven Revenue Sharing

Revenue sharing through content is not really a new concept for MLG — Pro players that have written articles or provided video tutorials as a part of MLG’s content are already involved in content revenue sharing. What puzzles me is the lack of innovative, revenue sharing options the league has not generated over the last three or four years when considering, after all, the company is technically considered a “media” company.

For those that do not know, revenue sharing (in MLG’s terms) is a form of revenue produced when players create content that the league can utilize, essentially for advertisers or with advertisers in mind. The revenue generated from said content is then distributed accordingly to the creator of that content and shared with the league. Revenue sharing is the common source of income for a number of bloggers, youtubers, and various networks that utilize affiliate programs.

So what new forms of revenue sharing could be in the works? Well, MLG just recently launched MLG.tv and it looks to be there new baby for online video content. MLG.tv coupled with their YouTube presence could generate quite a substantial amount of interest for Pro Players looking to expand their financial options. I think the league realizes the lost opportunities of truly utilizing content resources like YouTube while competing media companies like Machinima are reaping the benefits. Keep in mind that the majority of Machinima’s top video talents are or have loose ties to Major League Gaming and the Gamebattles’ community.

Premium Membership Fees

Premium Membership fees are coming and the league is hoping that they have built enough rapport with the community that, when offered, those Memberships sell themselves. As Sundance stated in his response tweet to my question, he is hoping to increase prize pools by including portions of the membership fees into competitions. The exact area those increases will be seen will ultimately be determined by how much extra income membership fees produce to the company’s bottom line. Personally, I would love to see portions of the membership fees increase prize payouts with the hopes of adding more financial opportunities for the top 32 teams and players across the board.

Alternative Sources

Merchandise Affiliate Program

I was never privileged enough to have my team’s merchandise sold by the league. The only area that MLG made any bit of money from my team and other Gears of War teams was when they released the picture pack with our logo — there was no revenue sharing involved. The story may be slightly different with the Halo players, I do not know exactly, but the teams and players associated to certain team names should be getting a small portion of merchandise sales. There should also be some type of affiliate program that allow players to tell their fans to input certain “Promo Codes” when they purchase an item that would benefit the Pro players. Promo codes can be easily tracked to associate with a certain player and they can be compensated accordingly.

If Chiig has a T-Shirt that says something like, “Exercise or Die” (Chiig is an exercising fanatic) and MLG sells it in the store, then Chiig should benefit. Conversely, if MLG has something they want to sell, Pro Players should be able to utilize promo codes with their fans and receive a portion of those sales (Smartphone Apps, Xbox Live Content, Swag, etc).

Alter Tournament Structure of Gamebattles

I have long believed that Gamebattles is the one online property that could be the bread and butter of Major League Gaming’s whole operation. The site should be, by all accounts, raking in millions of dollars for the company. Whether or not that is actually happening is completely up in the air, but the tournament structure needs to be altered to create more opportunities for players to make some serious money through online competitions.

First and foremost the league needs to get rid of the horrid credit system. The system is structurally flawed much like that of the Xbox Live points structure. The tournament credits do not always create zero balances on accounts, sometimes leaving players with 5 less credits than what is desired for certain tournaments. If anything at least mimic Xbox Live’s structure in it’s entirety and utilize those upcoming Membership fees for a year’s worth of unlimited entry into tournaments. That way there is a tiered structure of committed tournament buyers and those that play once in awhile.

There should also be a “money match” system built into place. Taking a piece from the competitive Fighting community, I would love to see a money match system built into place on Gamebattles. It could be something like a combination of Virgin Gaming and Beyond Gaming, two similarly structured console tournament destination sites, that allow players to compete instantaneously for money or virtual credits. Not only does that alleviate some of the constant bickering from players that want more opportunities at prizes, but it also creates more opportunities to utilize a membership fee. Obviously, the rules for a money match need to be heavily monitored because of cheating, but I think the idea alleviates more problems than it creates.

Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems

Content revenue sharing could be a very interesting or have a dull, copy and paste feel to it when it finally comes full circle. The membership fees pose the greatest opportunity for immediate change for both the community at large and those involved in direct competition. Forcing the community to put their money where their mouth is could have a negative backlash, if charging for the product does not match the price. Regardless of what route MLG ultimately pursues, players will undoubtedly continue to complain about prizes. Not to say they do not have every right to complain — I am sure that there are plenty of Professional gamers that would tell you the earnings are hardly worth the time invested. The dream of making a living by playing games is hard to manage. Let’s hope MLG can reinvent the dream.

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Contact K.L. at kendall@reflectzyn.com

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I don’t think they should have money type of tournaments on GB because of the lag, and the huge benefit of having host. Look how far Ability got in the Dr. Pepper Playoffs because of their connection.

http://twitter.com/arCtyC K.L. Smith

That’s a good point as well, but I wasn’t really focusing on 4v4 themed tournaments. I used the fighting community as a reference because they are specifically 1v1 matches with a “put up or shut up” mentality. If it were to be implemented into shooters I would like to see highly skilled 1v1 oriented games, like your Quakes and Unreal Tournaments.

The obvious issue with any online gameplay is always going to be host and latency problems. That’s the nature of online gaming, the principle behind the concept is to create more value to players and game communities that use the format already (Street Fighter, Madden, Quake, UT, Marvel vs Capcom, etc).

Richie

If they did have “money matches” isn’t that a form of gambling and couldn’t there be legal issues with that? Seeing how most of the MLG players are 16 and under?

http://twitter.com/arCtyC K.L. Smith

Yes there are legalities with money matches that would create an age restriction barrier.

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