gamescom 2019: Ford will create its own eSports teams

The gaming exhibition gamescom 2019 in Cologne brought a lot of surprises. So the well-known automaker Ford announced plans to seriously engage in e-sports. The company is currently looking for the best virtual car pilots to create their own esports teams. For now, Fordzilla national teams will be limited to five countries: France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK. In addition, it is planned to form a team of the best EU players.

Roelant De Waard, vice president of marketing sales and services for Ford of Europe, commented: “Ford has a racing experience that others can only envy. It's time to apply this knowledge to the world of esports to engage the next generation of online racers and inspire them to drive one of our Ford Performance Vehicles."

Currently, experts predict that the annual revenues of the global eSports market will reach about $1,1 billion, which is 26,7% more than in 2018. The total audience should be 453,8 million people: 201,2 million eSports fans and 252,6 million occasional viewers. At the same time, the age of the average player is just over thirty years old - just when people get a new car.

Ford believes its esports expertise and the excitement of the gaming community will also help the company understand what the future of travel will look like as new ways of getting around like self-driving cars emerge. By the way, the company has been present at gamescom for several years: for example, in 2017 it became the first automaker to install its own pavilion at the event. And a year later, the company introduced a high-performance version of its best-selling pickup truck in the EU, the Ford Ranger Raptor, right at the Cologne exhibition.

Fordzilla teams will compete on projects like Forza Motorsport 7 from Turn 10 Studios and Microsoft Game Studios. Forza is currently the best-selling racing series in the current generation of consoles. Millions of people play Forza every month, with about a million digital racers using Ford vehicles.

Justin Osmer, Head of Partner Programs at Turn 10 Studios, said, “We are pleased to see major brands like Ford choose Forza Motorsport to launch esports initiatives. The Forza series has millions of fans, and more and more people want to become esports players or just follow esports. We are excited to see our longtime partner Ford Motor Company creating new opportunities for this.”

Source: 3dnews.ru