Blizzard Ceases Negotiations With Korean eSports Agency; Fate of Korean Pro-StarCraft Unknown

Look at it this way, if a rogue theatre chain tried to play a firstrun movie still in the theatres without paying for prints or a licensing fee here in the US they'd be sued out of existence. This is essentially what KeSPA is trying to do. Generate profit, advertise someone's IP, and pay squat for that IP.

Its greedy shit like this from companies like KeSPA that pirate Starcraft, promote their tournaments while actively using Starcraft's IP, and generate unlicensed profit that is one factor driving Blizzard to drop LAN play.

THis is not gree on Blizzard's part and has NOTHING to do with Bobby Kotick or Activision. This is the guys at Blizzard protecting their blood, sweat and tears from a leech trying to exploit their work.

I run a cybercafe and we pay the publishers a fee to license their games. Valve Software has one of the best but most expensive programs in place. We pay Valve a monthly fee and they in turn give us promotional material, a listing on their website that we are a licensed cybercafe and all valve developed games are released free to us for the number of licenses we pay for.

What Blizzard is looking to do is make money in the same way that Valve is. I feel if Blizzard steps up to the plate and delivers the way Valve does than they deserve money. If all they are going to do is take money without giving back to the company that helped with the sales of their games then they are just being greedy.

Pretty sure that LAN parties and tournaments have been operating for years now without giving the game developer anything more than the price of each copy of the game needed. Blizzard needs to go smoke a pole, they aren't owed anything.

Considering that more retail versions of Starcraft where bought in Korea, Blizzard had better be happy with what they get. I've been to Korea, and they have shops that openly sell bootleg versions of games days after they come out.

I absolutely love Blizzard (except for WoW) and I don't play SC so I'm completely biased when I say I hope Blizzard wins this fight in every way possible.

blizzard smells MONEY

Man, I think blizzard is being greedy bastards for this.

No other esport pays royalties to the owner of it. Counterstrike or otherwise.

Look Brian, if you're gonna do an actual news item it helps to report the actual facts so as not to start a grape vine.

It's true that Blizzard has sighted IP rights, but that's not "central to this conflict." What's central is that Blizzard is trying to capture the broadcasting rights of SC2 in Korea, a place where esports is established. Now it takes millions of dollars and time to promote awareness, build an infrastructure, and to bring the standard up to the level of a professional spectator sport. That's what's taken place in Korea in the last 10 years and Kespa is the name of a consortium of the biggest Korean businesses that have banded together to finance these tournaments.

KeSPA also was not implicated in match-fixing. The pro teams were infiltrated by the illegal gambling rackets, some of which is set up by a few retired pros. That's how they gained access to the active players. Kespa did to try keep it hush hush and to run its own investigation, but the news leaked.

GOMTV is also not a Blizzard-run tournament. GOMTV is possibly a Korean partner of Blizzard's in SC2. GOMTV Invitational was a one-shot tournament GOMTV used to set up its GOMTV Classic tournament after sponsoring MSL for 4 seasons. Kespa did not "block" anything, a few of the pro teams barred its players from participating in yet another tourney in addition to 2 individuals and a team tourney already, so as to keep the quality of games high and maintain a focus.

There's no doubt disagreement b/w Blizzard and Kespa, but your news posts makes our "home team" sound like some innocent besieged business trying etch out a living. Blizzard has benefited for years from esports, selling at least 3 of its 11 million lifetime sales in korea alone, not to mention other promotional attachments, chips, sodas, different utilities, and of course free publicity and guaranteed firehouse sales for SC2 that would otherwise cost muchos dinero.

It's an obvious money grab. The more control they have the easier it is to monetize. Now that they have seen how much money WoW brings in there is no way they aren't going to try and pinch any dime they can out of the SC2 online content, tournaments included.

I realize this is against the general trend of the comments here, but...
I don't see the tournaments as violating Blizzard's rights at all. Presumably they purchased enough copies to play the game. That's all Blizzard is entitled to. They should be glad that the popularity of the game there is so insane that they can make bank on Starcraft brand tortilla chips and backpacks and godknowshwhatelse.

As it seems this is not about pirated game copies, what games are licensed at above game cost for tournament use? I have not heard of the situation in e-sports before now.

News flash. Asian group ignores IP rights and rips off another companies work without paying.

Shocking I say.

Blizzard should be the one paying to sponsor tournaments. KeSPA is doing it for free. I bet Starcraft would have been so much less popular without Korean tournament shows.

I would love a more indepth article about this Shacknews! Dig deep!!!

What's the problem? Bobby Kotick just wants to wet his beak.

Not 100% sure but I believe SC2 will only be playable through B.net. There will be no LAN option. Si I'd think if Blizzard wants they could block any non sanctioned competition.

Just so I have this clear:

Blizzard is accusing the tournament org of long-term large-scale copyright infringement?

If they're using unauthorized copies of the game (that were not paid for) for their tournaments, and charging money to participate in those tournaments, that seems fairly obviously wrong. But since enforcement of such things in SK is laughable at best, I don't see Blizzard winning this one.

I also am forced to wonder how much this behavior factored into their decision to remove LAN play from the SC2 release...

If KeSPA is violating their IP rights, then sue. If they're not violating Blizzard's rights, then stop whining.

Although it may seem that way at first, this is a LONGSHOT to call blizzard out for being "greedy" or "smelling money" in fact its the exact opposite. Blizzard wants to expand the professional gaming (E-Sports) scene by leaps and bounds, and KeSPA is, in essence, cock blocking them from doing so. KeSPA (as briefly touched on in the article) is a very corrupt, greedy and terrible terrible organization that was created to look out for players rights, but has succeeded only in bullying teams, players, coaches and now blizzard, in order to [not look out for players but to] stay in power over korean e-sports.

even more can be said about the opposite of blizzard "just being greedy" by reading a quote further in the article.

"Yonhap: What's Blizzard's vision for E-sports?
MM: Our understanding of E-sports is as a community project that increases the enjoyment of the game for the players. It's going to be popular not only in Korea, but worldwide.

Of course it could be profitable as well, but we're focusing on the community aspect of E-sports more than the financial aspects. If we turn a profit, we plan to reinvest a large portion of it to development e-sports even further, in the form of sponsorships, prize money, etc."

this is unwise! take away teh starcraft tournaments and the koreans will start world war 3!

hmm does anyone know the laws in South Korea?

Sorry to be nitpicky,I think "profiting of if its IP" should be "profiting off of its IP".

I wouldn't correct grammar and spelling in a user comment, but I figure you probably want them corrected in a news story.