News has begun to surface that Major League Gaming, who once had a stranglehold on the world of competitive gaming, has been purchased by Activision Blizzard. The game developer reportedly snagged a majority of the organization’s assets for a cool $46 million, much of which will go towards paying MLG’s considerable debts.
Although they’ve moved away from the genre in recent years, MLG played host to a number of fighting game competitions, featuring titles like Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Tekken 6, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, King of Fighters XIII, Soulcalibur V, Mortal Kombat, Injustice: Gods Among Us, and Killer Instinct since 2004.
It’s also being reported that a “corporate action” has removed CEO Sundance DiGiovanni, replacing him with former CFO Greg Chisholm “without a stockholders’ meeting by less than unanimous written consent of […] stockholders.”
While we’ve yet to hear official word from either organization, former MLG employee Scott “Sir Scoots” Smith mentioned that he was notified of the purchase earlier today due to his continuing status as a stockholder.
As for what Activision hopes to achieve with this move, that’s still anyone’s guess. With current properties StarCraft and Heroes of the Storm making rounds on the competitive circuit and Overwatch certain to fill the same niche when it launches next year, it’s likely they were in the market for an established tournament infrastructure to start running their own events.
In any case, we’ll have to wait for confirmation from either of the involved parties to learn what comes next. Stay tuned for more details.
Source: eSports Observer via MarkMan