PWR Launches First Elite Esports Facility in the Metaverse
July 7, 2022
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The PWR Facility, a first-of-its-kind architecturally designed elite esports training and content facility, has launched in the metaverse.
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Along with Populous, the world-first project collaboration to design and develop an elite esports training facility has now been created in Fortnite and launched at 7pm on the 7th July 2022.
The project was born from an idea of one of Australia’s most successful gaming content creators, Lachlan Power and his team, who originally envisaged the creation of a high performance content and gaming facility that could be built in the real world, but before anything, experienced in Fortnite.
Access the PWR Facility via the island code <2798-2476-0891> in Fortnite Creative, (Fortnite is published by Epic Games Inc).
The brand new facility is designed specifically for PWR’s internal team and the wider gaming community to socialise, experience an elite training space, test the design choices in the building and interact with the facility before it has been built.
With the world of esports rapidly evolving Populous has spearheaded the conversation around the design of world-class facilities for esports gamers to physically gather on a grand scale. Completed esports arena projects include Esports Stadium Arlington Texas, Nerd Street Gaming, Fortress Melbourne and their new esports entertainment and gaming hospitality expansion into Fortress Sydney.
Combining Populous’ knowledge and experience in designing elite training facilities and esports arenas, Populous have now created the PWR Facility that is unlike anything in the metaverse.
Senior Principal and architect, Al Baxter, said there were no constraints in designing this project which gave the team a whole lot of freedom to do something special.
“When we first spoke with PWR, we wanted to explore how we could use their brand in the actual form of the building itself to create that ‘wow’ connection between the brand’s form and shape and the building,” Baxter said.
“You get a sense of journey and anticipation when arriving at the PWR Facility.
“You walk into an amazing central collaboration space that can be seen from all areas of the facility. There are key spaces like the multi-functional event area, Lachlan’s office, the boardroom, broadcast and VR streaming studios, the content creator’s editing suite and esports gamers training space on the upper level which is all connected to the central space. On the ground floor is the merchandise area and operational spaces,” Baxter said.
PWR will use the facility created in Fortnite as the hub for all things PWR and hopes that, as the capabilities of Fortnite’s metaverse expands, its functionality will evolve into a place to bring people together to celebrate the gaming experiences PWR creates everyday. For a limited time gamers will also be able to purchase the Fortnite Icon Outfits of Kathleen ‘Loserfruit’ Belsten and Lachlan from within the merchandise store inside the facility.
“Together, PWR and Populous have created a purpose-built training and content facility which expresses the PWR brand.
“It is intrinsically designed to exist and be experienced both in the virtual world and one day we hope to see it built in reality,” Power said.
Another focus for the project was to design a place where content creators could learn and refine their craft and encourage esports gamers to train to develop stronger health and wellbeing opportunities, an important priority for Lachlan.
“Professional gamers, esports athletes and content creators need places that promote their long-term growth and development. In creating the PWR Facility, we acknowledged the need to create intentional spaces that promote the health, wellbeing and performance of our people.
“From the gymnasium to the active social areas and the cafe, we wanted to demonstrate that this facility has been designed by a team specialised in creating elite training facilities so that we can optimise the performance and creativity for our athletes and creators,” Power said.
Populous have designed 180+ elite training centres for some of the biggest teams around the world. As Baxter explains, successful training facilities need to reflect the culture of the community they are designed for.
“To create a high-performance organisation or club, incidental interactions need to occur where members of the team and the players are more accessible to each other to encourage more conversations and connections.
“This collaboration is where innovation happens, and we really wanted to reflect that in the design of the PWR Facility,” Baxter said.
According to the latest industry trends report by Newzoo, esports saw an uptick in new users during the pandemic as consumers spend increasingly more time in virtual worlds. By 2024, there are expected to be almost 286 million esports enthusiasts worldwide, a vast increase from the 197 million in 2019. Additionally, some 291.6 million people are forecast to be occasional viewers of esports by 2024.
In 2021, Newzoo reported the global esports market was valued at just over US$1.08 billion, an almost 50 percent increase from the previous year. Additionally, the esports industry’s global market revenue was forecast to grow to as much as US$1.62 billion in 2024.
As competitive video games continue to integrate into popular culture, global investors, brands, and media outlets are all paying attention to the metaverse as more viewers tune in to watch their favourite games being played by some of the best gamers in the world.
On Thursday 7th July 2022, members of PWR, Populous and Epic Games presented at a pre-launch reveal and panel discussion at the ESI Esports Insider Conference in Singapore.
Panel participants included Dean Reinhard from Epic Games, Billy Young from PWR and Brayden Goodwin and Luke Woolley from Populous who presented an exclusive sneak peek preview of the new home of PWR and spoke about how esports teams and brands are collaborating in the metaverse.
To experience the PWR Facility in the metaverse, insert the island code <2798-2476-0891> in Fortnite Creative.
This is an independently created Fortnite Creative experience and is not sponsored, endorsed, or administered by Fortnite or its publisher, Epic Games, Inc.