In late April Blizzard announced that it had given up on trying to negotiate with the Korean eSports Association. The three year disagreement with KeSPA was about broadcasting rights for various Blizzard game-related tournaments. KeSPA claimed that Blizzard's demands were too great, while Blizzard felt that their IP rights were not being respected. After months of negotiations Blizzard pulled out and was prepared to join forces with GOMtv.
This week Blizzard officially announced its partnership with Gretech-GomTV. The agreement gives GomTV the exclusive rights to operate and broadcast tournaments for all Blizzard games in Korea. It also means that organizations currently running Blizzard game-related leagues (and broadcasting league events) are on their way out. This includes leagues run by OnGameNet, MBCGame and KeSPA. Blizzard is allowing these leagues to operate until August - the end of this pro-league season. Word on the street is that Blizzard will allow its new partner to negotiate deals with OGN and MBCGame.
Naturally this is positive news for Blizzard, but it may end up embroiled in a lawsuit with KeSPA under the jurisdiction of an unfriendly court. We'll see. KesPA officials promised a response to this next Monday.
Meanwhile, Blizzard's Mike Morhaime recently took his case directly to the Korean StarCraft community in an open letter:
To everyone in the Korean Starcraft community,
There have been several recent events regarding Blizzard’s involvement in Korean e-Sports. I’d like to take this opportunity to explain our stance on the current situation, and Blizzard’s position and vision for the future of e-Sports. But before I begin, I need to clearly explain the relationship between Blizzard and the Korea e-Sports association, and why we made the decision to stop trying to negotiate with the KeSPA office as a partner.
In 2007, we were shocked and disappointed to learn that KeSPA had illegally sold the broadcasting rights for StarCraft tournaments without our consent. With this clear violation of our intellectual property rights, we were forced to become more actively involved in the situation and make our voice be heard. Even so, we began talks with KeSPA in good faith so we could find a way to protect our intellectual property rights as well as help e-Sports to grow further.
For the following three years, we tried very hard to have negotiations where we could correct a skewed situation and reach mutual understanding. However, during this process, what we learned was that KeSPA did not recognize our intellectual property rights, and that our suggestions even up to this day, echoed unheard while KeSPA offered no solutions of their own. Furthermore, the KeSPA office prevented pro-game teams or pro-gamers from contacting Blizzard by threatening ‘disadvantages.’ Unlike the negative rumors you might have heard, Blizzard’s intention towards e-Sports is not to ‘dominate’ it and create excessive profits from it. From the beginning of the negotiations up to now, the basic framework we have thought of is one where e-Sports can continue to grow, while we can protect our intellectual property rights.
With the release of “Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty” approaching, we decided we could not delay any further in finding a trustworthy partner who respected our intellectual property rights, and decided it was time to find a new way altogether. As a result of that decision, we signed a contract with GomTV which we announced today, which gives them the exclusive rights to hold and broadcast Blizzard game tournaments in Korea. We have cooperated closely with GomTV in the past, and discovered in the process that we have similar values and goals in e-Sports. Also, we believe that GomTV is a capable partner with whom we can not only advance e-Sports in Korea, but in the entire world as well.
We are very proud that Starcraft contributed greatly to Korea becoming a global forerunner in e-Sports. We eagerly await the day when we can support progamers, or GomTV in their efforts to cooperate with the other broadcast companies in the world of e-Sports. We will continue to do our best for the development of e-Sports, and to that end we will improve the quality of matches and add features that will create competitive factors for the enjoyment of the audience. As always, we are deeply thankful for your understanding and support, and we are always open to your thoughts opinions.
Thank you,
Mike Morhaime
Source: TeamLiquid by way of SK Gaming
