F1 strengthens its position in video games
Digital technology is increasingly at the heart of F1's development strategy: following video games, the discipline will now invest in mobile, with a partnership with Hutch studio.
Over the past two years, F1 has invested heavily in video games. While the video game for PC, Xbox, and PlayStation made its return in 2016, the real evolution took place the following season when it was announced that there would also be a world competition for video game players. A further step was taken in 2018, with the creation of a championship featuring drivers representing the real F1 teams.
Liberty Media intends to continue this momentum by investing in the new frontier, namely smartphone games. This is the essence of the partnership with Hutch, which already creates numerous car games on mobile phones, as the combined audience of its different licenses exceeds 200 million. While Hutch and Liberty Media present their initiative primarily aimed at sports fans, there is no doubt they will seek to reach a new target audience. Beyond the revenue these games can generate, it’s a communication challenge to reach an audience increasingly less interested in motor sports, particularly as broadcasted on television.
It is thus interesting to see the communication the Williams team was able to make regarding its eSports division. It revealed that during the 2018 season, its online races had been viewed 30 million times. Besides this significant number, what is even more striking is that 75% of this audience was under 35, indicating that the young generation, born with video games, is highly receptive to this new mode of competition.
The first official gaming applications should therefore appear as early as the 2019 season.
With the participation of www.racingbusiness.fr
