The possibility of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games featuring esports as an event is exciting. But if you’re hoping for Call of Duty or Overwatch, don’t hold your breath—violent video games aren’t allowed.
Back in October, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said that “competitive ‘esports’ could be considered as a sporting activity,” leaving the possibility of Olympic competition open. But when AliSports, a division of AliBaba, tried to negotiate a bid to sponsor an esports competition at the next Olympic Games, they found that violent games are not tolerated.
“In our communication with the Olympics committee, we’ve come to have a better understanding of their values, which is to promote peace,” said Zhang Dazhongin, CEO of AliSports. “That’s why for the future development of eSports, we will focus more on titles that are actually related to sports, instead of games that focus on violence and slaughter.”
The news comes a few months after Thomas Bach, President of the IOC, spoke on violence in video games.
“We want to promote non-discrimination, non-violence, and peace among people,” he said. “This doesn’t match with video games, which are about violence, explosions and killing. And there we have to draw a clear line.”
This means many popular esports will be excluded, including Call of Duty, Overwatch, League of Legends, Dota 2, and Counter-Strike.
According to Bach, the focus is on esports that mirror those in real life.
“So if ever somebody is competing at playing football virtually or playing other sports virtually, this is of high interest,” said Bach. “We hope that, then, these players are really delivering sports performance. If [fans] at the end would even play the sports in the real world, we would even be more happy.”
Interestingly, an October Neilsen survey found that only 28 percent of esports fans spanning four countries believed they should be an Olympic sport. And if violent video games are included, this number could sink even lower.