In 2020, the WBSC, the world baseball federation, announced to global developers that it was ready to organize world championships in E-Sports. However, these companies need to refine their craft to achieve techniques and results compatible with regulated, realistic, and entertaining competitions.
We’ve already seen, here and there, numerous innovations aimed at consoles, PC games, or batting centers. First, the WBSC needs to administratively approve the possibility of organizing E-Sports competitions in baseball, softball, and baseball5. Then, it will be time—likely in 2022—to choose one or more technologies and organize a world tournament. National federations will then be tasked with advancing this in their respective countries. In France, however, we still have much to do in traditional sports, but embracing the digital shift soon would certainly be a good option.
Many companies, particularly Japanese ones, are working hard on this. It could involve traditional video games with controllers on consoles or PCs with online games to create player networks. It could also involve diving into the metaverse for augmented reality to simulate playing with characters that resemble real players or, conversely, animated styles. Finally, it could involve batting centers that offer a virtual component (the pitcher on a screen) and a real component for batting. We haven’t yet seen the opposite, where the pitcher in the bullpen is real and the batter is virtual. That said, we should likely see the first E-Sports Baseball competition in 2023, which will undoubtedly fuel discussions about whether it should be included in the Olympic E-Sports framework.
