Once the leader in North American esports, MLG is using the sale to pay off a mountain of debt; some lesser shareholders are being left out in the cold by the deal, gaining little in the way of compensation from a deal in which they had no say.
Though some outlets have reported that MLG will be greatly changed by the buyout, co-founders Giovanni and Mike Sepso assure the public that MLG is still focuses on its original intent to highlight the work of the world’s most talented gamers - with the added goal of bringing esports to a wider television audience. According to Sepso:
Activision Blizzard’s CEO Bobby Kotick names this part of Activision’s plan to create “the ESPN of esports.” With some estimates granting esports over three million viewers by 2017, this is a huge opportunity for both Activision Blizzard and MLG to make esports as prolific worldwide as FIFA has made soccer.
Activision Blizzard wants to bring MLG to your livingroom.
So is this really “the end of MLG as we know it,” or just the company’s ticket out of debt and into bigger and better things? Let us know what you think in the comments.
