Competitive online gaming has never received so much attention as it has received this gen and part of that has to do with big marketing by the console manufacturers and third party publishers for whom it has become a big business.
Call of Duty has also embraced eSports and that’s one reason you see so many people showing off their skills on YouTube and also earning a lot of money from it.
Quinn DelHoyo, multiplayer lead on Gears of War Judgment at Epic, has revealed to Forbes how eSports has influenced multiplayer.
“I’m a big fan of eSports. There are a few people here at Epic Games that are as well. When it comes to anything with sports — I was a football coach. I love sports, all that competition,” he said.
“When you look at OverRun, which is our competitive class-based multiplayer mode, it actually has influences from MOBA games like League of Legends and Dota, where you have a map and there are three lanes on those games. In our game, we decided to have two lanes on all the OverRun maps.
“You have a left and a right lane to make the combat focused and intense and fast paced. That was one of the influences we had in making the game.”
He also explained it with a spectactor perspective and said that since it’s a third person camera, OverRun is good for eSports due to significant advantages.
“From a spectator perspective because it’s a third person camera, OverRun is good for eSports because you can see who the player is controlling,” he said.
“And with the monsters that are in OverRun with the Locusts and all the other classes that are easily defined, someone that’s commentating or casting could easily hypothesize, “This guy is a boomer or a mauler and this is what he can do. These are his abilities.” If he has a Kantus coming by him, you can predict what is going to happen. And that builds the drama and the intensity that people that watch sports or eSports really enjoy.”
Gears of War: Judgement will be released sometime next year for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.
