Upgrade – Nintendo has provided a statement regarding Sony’s acquisition of the Evolution Championship Series.
“Nintendo has enjoyed interacting with fans at previous Evo tournaments and wishes the show organizers the best with their new venture. We will continue to evaluate Evo and other opportunities as we plan future activity for the Super Smash Bros. tournament.“Said a Nintendo spokesperson.
Sony has announced that has acquired the Evolution Championship Series, better known as Evo, the largest fighting game tournament in the world.
Sony Interactive Entertainment and RTS, an Endeavor esports company, have acquired the “assets and properties” of the Evo series. The purchase means that future Evo events will be Sony PlayStation events in association with RTS..
Evo co-founders Tony and Tom Cannon will remain at Evo as key advisers and Sony took the opportunity to announce the 2021 dates for Evo Online.
This year’s Evo event will be held digitally August 6-8 and after August 13-15. Events will include Tekken 7, Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition, Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate, and Guilty Gear – Strive -. Details on the online qualifiers will be shared in the coming weeks.
As for other games. Evo’s business developer Mark Julio says that “Evo is still open to all platforms“and that PlayStation and RTS are allowing Julio’s team to work with their community to support fighting games as a whole. Although this does not specifically answer whether games from own developers such as Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. will appear in future events..
Also very important to note. @EVO is still open to all platforms. The teams at PlayStation and RTS are enabling us to continue working with our community to support fighting games. https://t.co/NKMQUSvkfj
— Mark Julio (@ MarkMan23) March 18, 2021
“Today, we are delighted to announce the next chapter in the history of PlayStation and Evo, the largest and longest running fighting game tournament in the world.“Sony says in a blog post detailing the acquisition.
“For PlayStation, today’s announcement marks an exciting step in our journey to nurture the growth of the fighting game and esports community and broadly support competitive gamers on our consoles. ” dice PlayStation. “Fighting games are very popular on PlayStation consoles, with gamers logged over 1.1 billion hours of playtime in 2020 alone.“.
Sony says it will “break down barriers” for gamers to compete at all levels of sport and reaffirmed its commitment to creating a “safe and inclusive environment for gamers.”
The 2020 Evo Online event was canceled following allegations of abuse against Evo organizer Joey Cueller. NetherRealm and Capcom withdrew from the 2020 event in solidarity with members of the fighting game community who spoke out against the abuse. This, in turn, is part of a larger scandal that threatened to engulf the entire community.
Official involvement from Sony could indicate increased organizational support to create a safer environment for gamers and attendees.