It looks like Microsoft isn’t done with being involved with the gaming scene, out of Xbox, that is. After retiring its game streaming service, Mixer, the company has now acquired the eSports events platform known as Smash.gg.
Today, we're excited to announce that Microsoft has acquired https://t.co/TieVAfV74C! 🎉🍾🎊 (1/3) pic.twitter.com/bKLyx4CBhH
— start.gg (@StartGG) December 2, 2020
For those who aren’t familiar with the name, Smash.gg is a tournament organization tool that started exclusively for Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. games. Since then, Smash.gg has been used to organize tournaments for games such as Street Fighter, Killer Instinct, Mortal Kombat, BlazBlue, and other competitive games. What Smash.gg brings to the table the ability to track tournament participants, rankings, brackets, and hosting all that conveniently. While never used it myself, I’ve seen others use it, and they had nothing but positive things to say about the service.
As it stands, this acquisition won’t change how Smash.gg operates, and it will be “business as normal” according to the company. Meaning Smash.gg will continue to be the center point for organization gaming tournaments for multiple platforms and games, while Smash.gg would benefit from Microsoft’s resources and would help the team. So don’t expect them to suddenly become exclusive to Microsoft competitive games because there aren’t many of those; Killer Instinct, Gears of War, and Halo are the only ones that come to mind. It simply wouldn’t make any sense for Microsoft to do that. So what exactly is Microsoft’s angle with this acquisition? For now, your guess is as good as mine and I’m drawing a blank.
For now, it's business as usual as our combined team continues to support our community and tournament organizers. We're excited about this acquisition's potential to further empower the esports community and expand https://t.co/TieVAfV74C's reach and scale. (3/3)
— start.gg (@StartGG) December 2, 2020
What’s strange about this acquisition is that Microsoft is upfront about it, and we’d see an official confirmation by Microsoft or Xbox News Wire by now. Except, we haven’t heard or seen anything as of yet. The only ones who’ve come out and mentioned anything has been Smash.gg. At the same time, Microsoft hasn’t denied this either. Again, it’s all a bit strange, and we’ve reached out to Microsoft for an official comment.
For now, you can stop worrying that Smash.gg will end up like Mixer did and disappeared despite Microsft claiming they were in it for the long haul.
