Updated: Aussie start-up ProGaming to pit player vs player in a worldwide battle for fame and fortune.
Once the subject of frequent jibes in film and popular culture, professional gaming is soon becoming a respectable profession in its own right – and new service ProGaming seeks to fill a niche that it hopes will expand to epic proportions.
What started as a dream of three Brisbane-based gaming enthusiasts, ProGaming soon grew to fill their current goal: a unified gaming service that will offer gamers worldwide the chance to compete on a global stage.
Aaron Fletcher, a Director of ProGaming, explains "The thing that struck us was the fact that no one – not even on the international stage – had tried to create a totally comprehensive service for gamers, particularly when the market is so large and the industry is so fractured."
The service will be offered initially in Australia, and is intended to expand into Europe, North America and Asian markets at an unspecified time.
ProGaming claims to give gamers the chance to "compete in over 100 of the latest game titles for big cash prizes... whether you're a casual gamer, a weekend warrior or a total videogame tragic."
A fee is charged to gamers who enter into tournaments, which is managed by ProGaming and ultimately handed out to the winner of the tournament – minus a service charge – who can land themselves up to $15,000.
Also offered are free tournaments called "Freerolls" that cost nothing to enter, but offer prizes worth up to $500 in value. The experience will be tied together with a string of Achievements totalling over 2000, which can be earned through participation in the ProGaming website.
Though we recently received a press release direct from ProGaming, their website still reads "will be released in BETA, 2010" – and though they offer a slick video and username reservation form, there have been no further updates since August 13, 2010.
Amidst competition from other gaming services such as Microsoft's LIVE, Sony's PSN or Valve's Steam, Fletcher is confident that ProGaming can punch above their weight: "We want to ensure that we'll have a real point of difference compared to all the other platforms that exist currently."
The landing page for the service can be found here, with the introduction video below. It remains unclear as to when the service will launch. We have contacted ProGaming for more information at time of writing, and will update when we receive a response.
Update 02/02/2011 @ 6PM: We have received a response from ProGaming, which reveals key details about the service and appears on page 2, summarised below:
The full response can be read over the page. We will continue to follow the service as it launches in the near future.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012