When two Spanish soccer players took to the controls of FIFA 20 after the COVID-19 pandemic saw their La Liga match canceled, a stadium-sized virtual audience watched online.
The huge digital crowd last week is part of a spectacular boom for the digital gaming industry, as record numbers flock to online servers for distraction, entertainment and friendship with the “real world” seemingly falling apart.
Real Betis Balompie striker Borja Iglesias kicked the winning goal using his own digital likeness in the 6-5 battle against Sevilla, which was broadcast on popular video game streaming platform Twitch.
Photo: Reuters
It took place at the same time the original derby had been scheduled, before Spain’s premier tournament was postponed as part of containment measures that have also seen the country’s 46 million people largely confined to their homes.
“We do all of this to entertain all of you, so that you can be at home enjoying it, insofar as it is possible with this epidemic,” the host of the broadcast told his audience of 60,000.
Nearly every nation has reported cases of COVID-19 infection, with frantic efforts to contain the disease prompting the near total shutdown of some of the world’s biggest cities.
Online gaming has proved a welcome diversion for many people chafing at movement restrictions, the cancelation of countless public events and a relentless onslaught of news about the pandemic.
“It made me feel less depressed about being in a small space for a long time,” said Yang An, who was last month ordered to quarantine for two weeks after returning to Shanghai from her hometown.
She told reporters that she passed the time by playing for up to eight hours a day on her Nintendo Switch handheld console.
Internet providers have scrambled to shore up their networks in the face of surging demand.
Gaming traffic on Verizon’s network shot up an “unprecedented” 75 percent in the space of a week, the US telecom has said.
Software companies have also rushed to accommodate a record number of users.
Rockstar Games, publisher of the Wild West-themed adventure title Red Dead Redemption, promised players that it would keep its online servers running smoothly after it told its global workforce to work from home.
The company also teased a rollout of extra in-game activities to keep housebound players glued to their controllers.
Online gaming communities could “go some of the way to create the public space that’s been lost” in the wake of the pandemic, said Christian McCrea, a media studies lecturer specializing in games at Australia’s Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
He pointed to Pokemon Go — a smartphone game that became a worldwide phenomenon in 2016 when it lured millions of people onto the streets for a virtual monster hunt — which was this month tweaked by its developer to make it easier for users to play at home.
Gaming habits were likely to see a massive transformation in the months ahead, with the prospect of further economic ructions and long stretches of social isolation looming on the horizon, McCrea said.
“Overall the big impact will be younger kids at home for months on end with parents out of work,” he told reporters. “Games will be at the center of a lot of their spare time.”
Video games have long been blamed for a causing a suite of health issues, from repetitive strain injuries to eyesight problems.
The WHO classified gaming addiction as an illness in 2018, the same year that China launched a crackdown on the industry due to concerns that youngsters were spending too much time online.
However, veteran gamers now ironically appear among those best-placed to navigate the pandemic and its effects on everyday life.
Twitch streamer “Loeya” last week told her 1 million-plus fans in a broadcast that travel restrictions and school closures in her native Sweden and elsewhere were unlikely to alter her own mostly indoors, game-heavy schedule.
“Technically I self-quarantined myself, like, three years ago,” the 22-year-old said jokingly.
Barcelona star Lamine Yamal would be motivated by criticism ahead of the Clasico, Barcelona assistant coach Marcus Sorg said yesterday. Teenage winger Yamal has been in the spotlight in the Spanish capital after joking that Real Madrid “steal” and “complain” during an appearance on a social media stream. Champions Barca face Real Madrid today in La Liga at the Santiago Bernabeu, looking for a fifth consecutive win over their rivals. “Lamine is a top player and I think [the criticism] will be motivating for him,” Sorg told a news conference. “I hope we all see him tomorrow [give] the best performance.” The 18-year-old Spain
‘A HISTORIC moment’: ‘I think we all need to take a step back and appreciate Leo Messi is playing in Major League Soccer,’ league commissioner Don Garber said Lionel Messi raised the Golden Boot. He then got Inter Miami started with his head. The Argentine opened the scoring with a diving header in the first half, then capped the scoring in the 96th minute as Inter Miami opened the MLS playoffs with a 3-1 win over Nashville SC in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference best-of-three first-round series on Friday night. Messi and Ian Fray had the assists on Tadeo Allende’s second-half tally for Inter Miami, who now get two chances to advance out of the first round for the first time in Messi’s two-and-a-half-year tenure with the team. Game
‘COMPLETE GAME’: ‘To be honest, I’m not sure about the history, but I’m very happy about what I did today,’ Yamamoto said through a translator after the game Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched a World Series game from another era. Sandy Koufax had October outings like this, and so did Orel Hershiser, but those types of performances have vanished in modern baseball. Until this 178cm starter from Japan delivered like the aces of old. Yamamoto threw a four-hitter for his second consecutive complete game, the first in the World Series since 2015, and the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-1 on Saturday night to tie their best-of-seven matchup at one game apiece. “It’s kind of the throwback,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “When he starts a game, he
Japan’s narrow defeat by Australia showed they can compete with the best teams in the world, coach Eddie Jones said after his side fell to a 19-15 loss yesterday. Australia coach Joe Schmidt led the Wallabies for the first time against Eddie Jones, his predecessor and now Japan coach. During Jones’ second tenure as Australia coach, the Wallabies lost seven of nine tests and were eliminated in group play at the 2023 World Cup. “What I’m super pleased about is that now we [Japan] are a team that stays in the fight,” Jones told reporters. “We kept going, we could have won
RSS