Microsoft acquire online Esports tournament platform Smash.GG

The San Francisco-based online Esports tournament platform Smash.gg unveiled that it has entered in an acquisition agreement with Microsoft, further bolstering its presence in the gaming world. The deal was announced on Smash.gg’s official website on Thursday, December 3.

A huge opportunity for Smash.gg

Smash.gg was founded in 2015 as a platform that offered tournament organizers all the needed tools to host Esports events by handling the registrations, payments and rankings for both amateur and professional scenes. Initially, Smash.gg organized only fighting games but has since expanded their offer to cover other Esports titles as well.

Due to its close ties to the fighting genre – which has become Smash.gg’s brand identity – it may seem unexpected for Microsoft to enter such a partnership, however, it’s hardly a surprise. Smash.gg has established itself as one of the key components in the live and online Super Smash Bros competitions and has as of late also tapped into other Esports titles, including the Rocket League competitive scene.

“Since we started in 2015, our goal has been to build active Esports scenes around the games people love to play,” read the statement on Smash.gg’s official website.

“Today we’re excited to take the next step in that journey by joining Microsoft to help strengthen our existing relationships and explore new opportunities. Smash.gg will continue as a self-service Esports platform available to tournament organizers from all game communities.”

Microsoft expands further into the gaming world

Microsoft has been exploring opportunities in the Esports industry for over half a decade with acquisitions that further diversified its services by including all game communities. Despite Microsoft’s failed launch of the Mixer live streaming platform earlier in 2020, the company has seen immense success with its Xbox platform, which remains one of the main divisions in its gaming efforts.

Microsoft has confirmed the news on MSN Esports’ Twitter account, stating the partnership brings “even more support and opportunities” for both parties.

It’s worth noting that the announcement was made via MSN rather than any other of Xbox series profilers, which suggests Smash.gg could be used to enhance the functionality of MSN’s Esports hub. The MSN hub was opened in October and currently serves as a filter for finding content creators or coverage of particular Esports titles on Twitch.

Smash.gg saved by Microsoft deal

The news comes shortly after Smash.gg unveiled they have – like many other companies – not been immune to the COVID-19 and the financial difficulties the pandemic has caused. The situation had even reached a point where Smash.gg were struggling to keep their project running, which ushered in talks about a possible closure of the platform.

Luckily, the Redmont tech giant swooped in at the eleventh hour to not only save the platform but also help it further strengthen its position into the Esports scene with the help of Microsoft’s Xbox platform, MSN Esports franchise and their developer tools such as PlayFab.

This is great news for the fast-growing online betting community that has gravitated in a huge fashion towards Esports betting. Many of these companies also hold online tournaments whose players will be pleased to know Smash.gg looks like it is here for the long haul.

This deal marks Microsoft’s first major foray into Esports since it shut down its Twitch-rivalling streaming platform Mixer and instead partnered with Facebook Gaming in June. Even though it’s unknown how much Microsoft spent on the deal, it’s fair to say money is not the problem for the tech giant. It spent $2.5B for Minecraft in 2014 and an additional $7.5B to acquire the Fallout, Doom, and The Elder Scrolls game publisher ZeniMax Media in September 2020.

By acquiring one of the leading tools for organizing Esports tournaments, Microsoft are now in an ideal spot to start looking for opportunities to revive Halo’s competitive scene ahead of the Halo Infinite release in 2021. Preemptively gaining control of Smash.gg would allow for that to happen and possibly rival Activision’s Call of Duty series, however, no statements regarding that have been made as of yet.