Sports marketing company Sun Sports & Entertainment (Pink Sheets: SSPE) announced the production of a video game based on its Mixed Martial Arts show “Art of War” today, heralding the company’s new direction in a growing industry.”It’s a brand-new chapter for us,” Sun Sports CEO CJ Comu told Market News First. “We’re entering a hot new market.”
According to the company, the new “Art of War” game is being developed for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 system as a “cutting-edge fighting game that focuses on and reinforces the ‘Art of War’ fighting competition.”
Comu said that this is the perfect time for Sun Sports to expand its “Art of War” fighting license to other markets, particularly the video game market.
“It’s a very exciting space,” Comu told Market News First. “The whole video game market has been growing at an increased rate since 2002. The sector we’re building this product for has a lot of room to grow for it … it’s something that has a huge fanbase right now.”
So what will the “Art of War” game offer gamers? Comu said the game will give players a chance to learn more about their favorite fighters on a more person-by-person level, giving them more of a personality than they might experience outside of the ring.
“We’re trying to take the live fighters and give them some color and dimension, not just focusing on the organization but on the fighters in the organization,” Comu said. “A lot of consumers want to know who these fighters are. They wanted to know what makes them tick. So, we’re going to start building some of the characters within the show itself to help build the brand.”
Comu said this was just one of the ways Sun Sports was looking to extend its “Art of War” and the sports marketing industry to a larger market.
“We’re always looking for new opportunities to showcase this industry to our growing fanbase,” Comu said. “We want to make art of war what people think of when they think of MMA.”