Evo was bought by Sony Interactive Entertainment and RTS

Evo Online 2021 will be held in mid-August and, oh yeah, Sony jointly acquired all of Evo with an esports venture called RTS

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After a particularly rough 2020, the annual fighting game tournament Evo is still hanging in there, in part, due to Sony Interactive Entertainment. Your eyes arenā€™t playing tricks: Sony has ā€œjointlyā€ acquired Evo in a partnership with RTS, ā€œa new venture born out of Endeavorā€™s esports business.ā€

The surprising news was shared on Twitter to the wider fighting game community this afternoon by PlayStation and Tony and Tom Cannon, the co-founders of Evo, who will stay on as ā€œkey advisors.ā€

In a message to the community, the Cannon brothers acknowledged not just the pandemicā€™s impact on the long-running event, but also ā€œthe circumstances surrounding the cancellation of Evo Online involving a former team member [Joey Cuellar] who has been completely separated from our company.ā€

ā€œWe want to reaffirm that harassment or abuse of any kind has no place within Evo or any of our future events, and weā€™re taking every precaution to make sure members of our community will always be treated with the respect, dignity, and decency you deserve,ā€ reads the letter.

Evo 2021 will feature tournaments for Guilty Gear Strive, Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate, Street Fighter V: Champion Edition, and Tekken 7.

Evo Online 2021 is set for August 6ā€“8 and August 13ā€“15, with more details coming soon. The headliners are Guilty Gear Strive, Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate, Street Fighter V: Champion Edition, and Tekken 7. For what itā€™s worth, the Evo site suggests ā€œmore games to be announced soon.ā€

In terms of Sony potentially blocking games ā€“ or companies pulling out of future events given the change in management ā€“ Evoā€™s director of global business development Mark Julio says ā€œEvo is still open to all platforms. The teams at PlayStation and RTS are enabling us to continue working with our community to support fighting games.ā€ Some fans arenā€™t going to believe it until they see it.

In a statement to IGN, Nintendo said it has ā€œenjoyed engaging with fans at past Evo tournamentsā€ and it will ā€œcontinue to assess Evo, and other opportunities, as we plan for future online and offline Super Smash Bros. tournament activity.ā€ Anything can happen when Nintendoā€™s involved. Feeling lucky?

Even with the stability SIE can lend Evo, the future of this FGC staple still seems hazy. Iā€™m curious to see what this move means for Sonyā€™s interest in the genre in general going forward. More deals, I suppose.


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Jordan Devore
Jordan is a founding member of Destructoid and poster of seemingly random pictures. They are anything but random.