On August 15, Red 5 Studios announced that $1 million in prize money is up for grabs at the Firefall eSports tournaments that will be going on in 2013. $1 million dollars for a game this new? That is confidence. These guys have already taken competitive gaming a step above with the recent launch of the eSports Toolkit, combat refinements to create higher skill ceilings for all battleframes, and the Firefall Mobile Gaming Unit tour rolling out in the United States this fall. ESports has been a strong focus of Red 5 Studio’s plan since the conception of Firefall and it’s definitely clear that they’re not taking that commitment lightly.
[quote]“Red 5 is dedicated to supporting the future of eSports and we believe that creating a more compelling experience for participants and spectators will further the cause of competitive gaming,” said Morgan Romine, eSports Maven of Red 5 Studios. “The newly launched eSports Toolkit is just the tip of the iceburg. We will be supporting this initiative with our Mobile Gaming Unit this fall and providing a huge payout for elite competitive gamers in 2013”. [/quote]
The eSports Toolkit that Red 5 put together is actually a pretty big deal. It offers spectators the ability to customize their experience with two feature-packed modes: Observer and Broadcast. Observer Mode allows the choice of watching gameplay action through an assortment of action cameras, including a dynamic top-down camera that calculates where the action is and auto-zooms accordingly; static cameras that can be switched to on-the-fly for a number of easily accessible viewpoints; and player cams that mimic the normal cameras that players have access to during gameplay. Broadcast mode presents a number of additional features specifically added for shoutcasters, including replay controls – which allow users to rewind, pause, slow motion, and fast forward – a Multiple Camera Preview for linecutting into a broadcast, and built in player stat tracking.
These are a number of features that competitive games rely on to convey the excitement of matches to an audience. It’s not an understatement to say that they’ll be a huge boon to Firefall as the game tries to make a splash on the competitive scene.
