As backward as you’d expect from the IOC. President Thomas Bach (a former Olympic fencer) has said he’s not against esports, as long as they’re mostly promoting real world sporting activities.
What would FIFA 17 or NBA 17 or SSX or whatever add anything to the IOC family? It’s already represented. Would Rocket League serve this role, or is the car-based soccer concept too removed from ‘real world’ activities? And if boxing, karate, fencing and shooting are already Olympic sports, why not Tekken, or even Nidhogg?
There’s many good reasons to not want esports at the Olympics. And how games are managed and have the awkward commercial associations of a ‘sport’ that is specifically owned by a company is weird in an Olympic context.
I mostly worry many games fans crave the validation, but it’s better to build new institutions than desire the approval of old ones with as much baggage as the IOC.
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Seamus runs Byteside. You may also have spotted his words at the Australian Financial Review, the ABC, Junkee, Gamespot, The Esports Observer, CNET, Gizmodo and a few other spots over the years. He's very happy that he gets to nerd out for a living.
