Sony Interactive Entertainment made a surprise move in the esports world today. The company, in partnership with new esports venture RTS, has acquired the renowned Evolution Championship Series, more commonly known as Evo. The announcement came via a message from Evo's Twitter account:

A message to our community. For more information visit https://t.co/6JHZCsJsXr pic.twitter.com/uj0NKRW30m

— Evo (@Evo) March 18, 2021

Sony also released a statement via their website, in which they expressed their enthusiasm at the acquisition and took the opportunity to announce Evo Online 2021, which will take place on August 6th-8th, and 13th-15th. The tournament will have free entry for gamers in North America, Europe, Asia, and Latin America to compete. Sony also took the time to assure fans and competitors that they remain committed to keeping Evo as authentic as possible, despite the new ownership.

Our collective team is laser-focused on one mission: preserving the authenticity of Evo for the fighting game community and finding creative ways, alongside our fans, to grow the tournament and make its events and broadcasts more fun, engaging and accessible than ever. At its core, Evo will remain what it has always been: an open-format competition that gives fighting game fans from different countries a chance to connect, test their skills, and forge new friendships.

Regarding Sony's partner in this acquisition, RTS, the statement shed some light on the fledgling company which is helmed by Stuart Saw.

Sony Interactive Entertainment has teamed up with RTS to acquire Evo through a joint venture partnership. With expertise spanning esports event management, brand and developer consulting and gaming talent management, RTS is a new venture led by CEO Stuart Saw and backed by investors including global entertainment, sports and content company Endeavor.

Sony also confirmed that Evo co-founders Tom and Tony Cannon will remain involved with the tournament in an advisory role. In another tweet from Mark Julio, director of business development for Evo, it was confirmed that despite the partial ownership by Sony, Evo would continue to be open to all platforms going forward.

Also very important to note. @EVO is still open to all platforms. The teams at PlayStation and RTS are enabling us to continue working with our community to support fighting games. https://t.co/NKMQUSvkfj

— Mark Julio 『マークマン』 (@MarkMan23) March 18, 2021

Source

 

[Julie_Pilgrim]

Hopefully this won't be that bad

 

[eyeliner]

Hopefully this won't be that bad

I wonder if they'll try to push some IP's, like Playstation All-Stars: Battle Royale?

 

[AmandaRose]

Nintendo has provided a statement regarding Sony's acquisition of the Evolution Championship Series.“Nintendo has enjoyed engaging with fans at past Evo tournaments and wish the show organizers the best with their new venture. We will continue to assess Evo, and other opportunities, as we plan for future online and offline Super Smash Bros. tournament activity.” A spokesperson for Nintendo said.

 

[stanleyopar2000]

Nintendo has provided a statement regarding Sony's acquisition of the Evolution Championship Series.“Nintendo has enjoyed engaging with fans at past Evo tournaments and wish the show organizers the best with their new venture. We will continue to assess Evo, and other opportunities, as we plan for future online and offline Super Smash Bros. tournament activity.” A spokesperson for Nintendo said.

"We're not using EVO anymore. Peace" - Nintendo

 

[eyeliner]

Nintendo has provided a statement regarding Sony's acquisition of the Evolution Championship Series.“Nintendo has enjoyed engaging with fans at past Evo tournaments and wish the show organizers the best with their new venture. We will continue to assess Evo, and other opportunities, as we plan for future online and offline Super Smash Bros. tournament activity.” A spokesperson for Nintendo said.

Heh, no more smashin' is my guess.

 

[Purple_Shyguy]

Yeah Nintendo won't have anything to do with Evo if Sony own it

 

[Deleted member 194275]

Do Evo was involved in that child abuse scandal? I ask that because Sony could easily create its own thing, given how strong the PlayStation brand is. Cleaning a dirt name seems to me a harder task.

 

[Julie_Pilgrim]

Do Evo was involved in that child abuse scandal? I ask that because Sony could easily create its own thing, given how strong the PlayStation brand is. Cleaning a dirt name seems to me a harder task.

It wasn't, that was the players

 

[fate6]

The PS3 lagged!!!!

 

[CMDreamer]

Hopefully this won't be that bad

Actually, I don't see how this would go well... Sony's hands are like my stomach.

 

[Silent_Gunner]

Hopefully this won't be that bad

*Looks at Capcom not wanting fan art of characters that they designed to be visually...titillating to be posted online anymore, knows that Sony has gone full SJW these days with TLOU2 and other censorship in an inversion of how it used to be between Sony and Nintendo in the 90's, and how the FGC has now developed a "Code of Conduct" because they can't do something as basic as hiring an external company to go through people's personal phones to see if maybe, just maybe, they should even be working for any respectable organization*

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

SONY STOP!

Don't you have enough things already like Funimation and Crunchyroll... and Kojima Productions?

 

[Xzi]

Eh that's fine, most of the fighting games community is already on Playstation anyway. Plus, Smash hasn't been a part of it since COVID became an issue because of its bad online play.

 

[Julie_Pilgrim]

most of the fighting games community is already on Playstation anyway

I thought most of the fighting game community was on pc(or maybe I think that just because I mainly discuss fighting games with other pc gamers)

 

[DKB]

I thought most of the fighting game community was on pc(or maybe I think that just because I mainly discuss fighting games with other pc gamers)

No. Mainly PlayStation.

 

[GBADWB]

hmm, microsoft aquiring smash.gg and sony with partial ownership of evo. great that larger companies can see potential i guess

I thought most of the fighting game community was on pc(or maybe I think that just because I mainly discuss fighting games with other pc gamers)

games will be played on whatever platform they are on if they are exclusive, but logistically its usually played on playstation because it would be the easiest to rent to cover most devices. The reason why at a physical location why PC's arent used is that they have the chance of random crashes and different pcs offering different performance depending on setup, and just to standardize setups, consoles are typically used in favor of PCs.

 

[xdarkx]

I just worry on how EVO would become from this partial acquisition by Sony.

 

[CeeDee]

Yeah Nintendo won't have anything to do with Evo if Sony own it

Like Nintendo wanted anything to do with it before

 

[Deleted User]

To be fair, I don't see how this could hurt the SONY brand recognition; Fighting and Racing Games seem to be the only two legitimate platforms that don't promote Child Gambling, which is where a lot of the flack for Online Gaming has come from, including on SONY as the main platform for Sports Games.

I've seen an increase in their YouTube Livestreams of Fighting Tournaments of late and it makes sense if this is coming from the same mindset and business plan.