A Veteran in Gaming: David Ting - SBartlett's Blog

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A Veteran in Gaming: David Ting

Posted on October 2, 2011 at 07:08 PM.

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A Veteran in Gaming: David Ting
Interview with David Ting, VP of Engineering at IGN Entertainment

Operation Sports recently had a chance to catch up with David Ting, GM of the IGN Pro Gaming League that was launched last April. IPL focuses on broadcasting professional competitive gaming through online streaming, also known as eSports. At the moment, IPL has signed on two major licenses for their league, the StarCraft series and League of Legends.

Ting, an innovative computer engineer, is a veteran of Silicon Valley startups, most notably working on Yahoo! music�s subscription based service before moving on to IGN. Ting�s job at IGN is focused: innovate new business.

What are the forces pulling console gaming and pc gaming to change as technology changes? Ting believes subscription based business will be more successful, featuring title upgrades and micro transactions.

Check out our interview below.

OS: What I first wanted to talk about is a little bit of your background David, working for Yahoo! and Entriq, and then getting into eSports and IGN the IPL.

David: I have been working in the software industry for over twenty years. My career spans IBM, Alta Vista, Yahoo! and Entriq. I am a veteran in the field. I�ve been a technology leader basically since the late 1990�s. It�s been a long time since I�ve ran an engineering team. After I left Entriq and joined Yahoo!, basically my philosophy on life has changed; it�s really about doing work that I enjoy instead of maximizing my take-home pay.

I joined Yahoo! and led engineering for Yahoo! music � I really love music � and in a sense, Yahoo! was at a steady state for a period of time. I decided to ... pursue my love for videogames with IGN Entertainment. At the time I joined IGN, they were No. 2 behind Gamespot. But today, we as a company overtook Gamespot and built a pretty comfortable lead. We have 70 million unique visitors monthly.

In terms of eSports, and how I got into it, is an interesting story. I�m always a very innovative person and I love videogames. I started watching videos on YouTube and noticed the numbers of views on Starcraft were growing exponentially. So last Christmas I wrote a business plan, and launched IGN IPL with a set of volunteers and now it�s growing into a real business. I�m devoting my entire time on this.

OS: Now with eSports, what�s going to be the difference between the Major League Gaming, which is probably one of the biggest competitors in this market and IPL?

David: The thing that we want to do at IPL, is not only create a sport league, but we believe in ourselves as a content production company. We basically run events not because it�s our core of our business model, but it�s an opportunity to capture moments in time and the exciting things happening around sports. We definitely look at MLG, but not as a competitor. eSport is too small right now � it�s really about the ecosystem of all the game leagues. There are a lot of organizations around the world. What we�re really interested in is telling the story of the people, everyday Joe�s of Americans, or Europeans, who take their career and turn pro gamer. You know, take something your good at, and make money from it. The question I ask in my business plan is 'Why is it better to play basketball or baseball professionally than playing videogames?' Videogames should be equal to [these professions], and IPL is here to facilitate that.

What [eSports] really evolved from was from World Series of Poker, and the NFL. If you look at poker say ten, fifteen years ago and playing it for a living, people would call you crazy. If you look at the NFL, they set the bar for everybody around the world on how a sport should be run and [how to be] productive. I borrowed very heavily from these leagues to learn from their success. I tried to build that in a very lean manner and launch it here at IGN.

OS: Is IPL going to focus on PC gaming or console gaming with Starcraft as it is now?

David: The way it works is that I put myself in the shoes of the spectators. What is interesting to watch? I don�t care if it�s console or PC. I started with Starcraft 2 because I have observed that video views on Starcraft are ten times bigger than any other video game. We are also talking to Capcom and Namco. I�m a big fan of their fighting games which are console based. We would like to add one of those titles in because I feel like the visual impact and the short timespan for action packed scenes is great for the eSports and spectators.

OS: I wanted your thoughts on gaming as a whole. There is a lot of social gaming popping up, motion control gaming, 3-d gaming, and 3-d powered phones now. I wanted to know your thoughts on the industry as a whole, and how IPL plans to capitalize on the new trends and technology?

David: Oh, that�s a great question. Hmm, my feeling about the videogame industry is that right now there are a bit more challenges to brand new concepts or [projects] that cost a lot. So I think that the days of a lot of big titles and new concepts, the days of spending tens of millions of dollars on a new franchise, those days are kind of past us because of social gaming and mobile gaming. What I believe the industry will move to is the availability of the game everywhere. I�m a big believer in mobile gaming. My kids love to play on the iPhone and iPad; I think that�s going to be the future.

Also, I think game development is going to change. What I talked about with IPL and how I developed the business, I think the same thing is happening in the gaming world. Developing games with a really low initial investment and put the dollars behind after it shows signs for success is the model to go. Subscription based is actually superior on a long time basis as opposed to a per license title. For example, if you buy a title, you buy it one time, it�s basically a one time impulse by. I think it�s going to trend towards a small transaction. People will be used to making minor upgrades to the game itself and you will end up spending more if you play the game more. I think that�s a great model.

OS: What are your thoughts on signing a professional athlete such as Gordon Heyward to IPL: Origins in Atlantic City?

David: I pitched the concept, if you watch the video �Coaching Heyward,� that was what I pitched and got him to sign on; for him to train and become better and become a pro gamer during the NBA lockout and show off his skills. And then show eSports fans how good he is at basketball. It�s really about telling a story � again we are content production company � telling the story on how the sporting world can bridge with the visual sporting world; The two worlds are coming together.