Electronic Arts may be best known for its successful video game franchises, including the Madden NFL and Mass Effect series, but the company is now aiming to broaden its horizons. A division of EA is currently focusing part of its efforts to producing television shows such as the unscripted competition series The Sims Spark'd.
Five years ago, EA formed what is now called its competitive gaming entertainment unit to oversee the company's esports extensions of its best-selling games. Since then, the unit assessed how it could bring competition to both players who wanted to play EA's game competitively and people who wanted to view such competitions.
As a result, the division expanded its output to include new forms of entertainment based on competition, including television shows. "Esports, as an industry, has really played out of the exact same playbook for over 20 years," said Todd Sitrin, SVP and GM of competitive gaming entertainment at EA, during an interview with Variety's Strictly Business podcast. "When we entered the business, we said we want to redefine what is esports and what it could actually be." The company's first effort to redefine esports was The Sims Spark'd, a reality competition series based on The Sims video game franchise that aired over the past summer on TBS as part of the network's ELeague line-up. Unlike standard esports competition models, which involve viewers watching teams play a video game against each other, The Sims Spark'd pitted participants against each other in a reality format Sitrin compared to Project Runway or The Great British Bake-Off.
According to Sitrin, The Sims Spark'd garnered over 4 million viewers over the course of its run on TBS and earned large viewership on digital distributor BuzzFeed Multiplayer. Furthermore, the series had the highest percentage of female viewership of anything ELeague aired on TBS this year, which Sitrin seemingly attributes to the fact that a majority of the competitors on The Sims Spark'd were women. The company plans to expand upon the approach and success of The Sims Spark'd with its other properties in 2021 as it attempts to broaden the video game market beyond the male demographic. "The competitive gaming entertainment group at EA is really focused on this new form of entertainment and building a business unto itself, not becoming just a marketing vehicle for the underlying video game," said Sitrin.
Though the concept of reality competitions based on video games or other intellectual properties may seem odd to some, it is not a novel concept. Fox recently ordered a second season of Lego Masters, a competition series in which players participate in weekly building challenges based on the U.K. series of the same name.
Of course, esports reality shows may not be everyone's cup of tea. With so many franchises to choose from, including Nintendo's Legend of Zelda series, gamers might prefer to see their favorite video games adapted into traditional scripted shows.
Source: Variety