CES: DIRECTV starts "Massive Gaming League"
by Christopher Grant 
{ Jan 5th 2006 at 2:30PM }
Satellite TV giant DIRECTV has announced their creation and broadcasting of a professional gaming league called
the "Massive Gaming League." Their CES press release stated: "Using new technology
that allows for the placement of cameras within an actual videogame, DIRECTV will produce a videogame tournament and
cover it as a sporting event, complete with producer, director and technical crew. Stories of the competitors will be
told via interviews and features, complemented with coverage of their exploits in actual competition. DIRECTV plans to
launch the Massive Gaming League in 2006."MTV similarly has experimented with broadcasting the more established Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) finals as part of their GameØRZ week.
[Via Gamecloud]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Sense @ Jan 5th 2006 2:43PM
Place cameras in an actual videogame?! They can do that!? DirecTV is some kind of sorceror.
renaldo @ Jan 5th 2006 2:44PM
Game?Z week.
What the hell, MTV?
Superzapper @ Jan 5th 2006 3:47PM
A bit off subject but Dish Network interactive Tv games are getting rather good.Even close to Xbox arcade quality.indeed it's witchcraft
Scott Vieth @ Jan 5th 2006 4:39PM
The day is probably going to come soon that cyberathletes are making six and seven figure salaries with the increase of these gaming leagues.
My hope is that it doesn't push the small place that does local events right out the door and hinder people from participating in these smaller less competitive events.
Bruce Wayne III @ Jan 5th 2006 4:56PM
Sense: think of a gamer spectating in Quake / UT / CS but send the video direct to the broacasting equipment / video mixer. Any game with spectating capabilities will work :-)
Fantaz @ Jan 5th 2006 6:44PM
Even G4 doesn't see how big competitive e-sports gaming will become.
ill trooper @ Jan 6th 2006 1:36AM
BMM-Tss-BMM-Tss-BMM-Tss-BMM-Tss
Techno!
How they gonna do it?!? And... Who's going to watch? Seems a bit early to try to pull this off, but maybe the ol' "Build it and they will Subscribe&Watch" addage will apply. A bit mangled there, a 'sorry' to all you fans of "The Natural."
MadCat @ Jan 6th 2006 3:26PM
Back when Tribes 1 was big, I did a lot of broadcasting for WSBN. In that is was more of a radio cast. I would be in observer mode and cast the events like a sporting event, it was great. They tried Tribes TV, but it was buggy and never really took off. Anyways, I imagine thats what it would be, sort of an "observer mode", not really placing cameras. I am curious to see if it will take off here. I know the T1 casts were very popular, it wouldnt be uncommon to have over 150 listeners for a top match.
Kevin aka Wildchild @ Jan 6th 2006 10:13PM
This is interesting for some of us. TSN, the online group I have been with since 2001, has been doing this very thing online for years, well since 1999.
The comment on MTV doing the CPL this past winter in New York was actually us, TSN, covering the event while MTV Overdrive aired it for us.
E-Sports coverage has been going on for years.
Madcat, haven't seen you in ages.
Frank the Commish @ Jan 9th 2006 9:16AM
Kevin,
Are you saying TSN stole DirecTV's 'new' technology and used a time machine to take it back to 1999?
This 'new' technology has been announced a number of times over the years. And yes, TSN and others have been broadcasting with in game cameras and interviews etc. for a long time.