This article looks at the effect of the Esports industry in South Korea and looks at the way in which is has shaped Korean culture and the impacts it carries along with it. The article mentions how South Korea has been the center of video games since early 2000. What interested me in this article was how the gaming industry has expanded during the last decade. It was supported by how nowadays, many individuals would spend their time with loved ones or friends in gaming cafes and other sorts and seek to play with/against one another as a form of bonding. It also mentions which big games helped the industry growth. Such an example would be Starcraft and Starcraft 2 created by Blizzard games which revolutionized the Korean gaming industry.Tournaments held in big spaces packed to the brim with fans, these kind of events lead to big money being earned. Another example would be the recent finals for the League of Legends world championships where 40,000 fans sat in the 2002 world cup soccer stadium in Seoul watching the two final teams battle against each other.
Looking at the economic side of this there are multiple benefits in doing so. Video games has gotten so big to an extent where large multinational companies such as Samsung and Razer are sponsoring teams to take part in this. Being a professional video game player in itself can be considered a profession at this day and age as players can be hired in which they are paid via the sponsorship money and prize money. League of legends is one of the highest profit earning games in the world where in 2013 for example it has raised a total of $624 million dollars, with a total of over 27 million players registered to date, this particular game has been a huge source of income.
The main point is that the Esports industry is continuing to grow becoming an important part of our daily lives. Economically, this industry offers employment for various jobs demanding a wide range of skills allowing economic growth. This once again can be represented by the South Korea’s transformation in the last decade since the industry began. This has allowed more openings for potential business that intend to link their products to this popular industry giving people more room to innovate new products that can potentially benefit the Esport society of the world. There will be increased competition and more product innovation and technological advances in improving this industry to help players that shall continue to expand on video games in the future