The New York Times reports that the reccession has seriously crippled the Video Game Sports industry, driving many smaller leagues, and some big ones (such as News Corporation's and DirecTV's Championship Gaming League), out of business. While salaries may not have be as high as they are in other, more mainstream sports, the Times states that the some of the top players are able to take home $60,000 a year. That might not be MLB money, but for those who now must work in customer service at Sam Goody (as former star mentioned in the article now does), it payed a lot better than their current job.

However, Matthew Bromberg, president of Major League Gaming (the single remaining large gaming league in the US), has little sympathy for those who have been crushed, stating:

We have driven everybody else out of the business... The history of league sports begins with one league.

Maybe Bromberg is right, but I don't think Major League Gaming's main stumbling block is too many competitors diluting the sport. The problem is that as of now, gaming is hard to watch. Most people don't care or understand what is happening on screen, and many of those who do are put off by the less-than-ideal camera angles that games currently offer spectators. Another issue it that there is no one definitive competitive game in the US. In Korea, everyone recognizes the Starcraft as the single major game/sport, but in America people are split between Halo 3, Counter Strike, Call of Duty, Quake, Unreal and many many more disparate products, making a consistent experience for the viewer hard to form. Right now, to understand the MLG one needs to be aquatinted with many of the latest games. Contrast that with something like football, where the game has been the virtually the same for over 50 years, so viewers can be confident that the barrier to entry in terms of understanding the sport will remain very low.

Personally, I'd really like to see major league gaming take off. I love watching Team Fortress 2 clan battles and I think as gaming continues to grow in popularity, soon more people will be able to relate to what the MLG is showing. Still, until there is a "standard" game series for pro-gaming, I can't see it taking off in as big a way as other sports.