SPYR's Pocket Starships Designed to Enter Rapidly Growing eSports Arena

DENVER, June 1, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- SPYR, INC. (OTCQB: SPYR), a holding company with wholly owned subsidiaries in both the mobile game & app development and publishing industry, and in the restaurant industry, today announced that its most recently published game, Pocket Starships (www.pocketstarships.com), is designed in such a way that it is ideally positioned to enter the growing electronic sports or "eSports" market in 2016.

eSports is a burgeoning world within the games industry, in which video games are played competitively for an audience of millions – both online on sites like Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/) and/or in front of tens of thousands of fans in arenas.  There are professional teams in this eSports world and increasingly big salaries and prizes as more and more sponsors pile into the market. 

According to an article published by MarketWatch, titled "Inside the billion-dollar business of watching other people play video games," eSports is an emerging, billion-dollar business that is seeing "phenomenal growth" and within which top players are earning millions of dollars in prize money. (www.marketwatch.com/story/electronic-sports-explained-in-5-pictures-2015-05-29).

A January 11, 2016, article from ESPN.com shows the rising appetite for eSports in markets from Europe to Asia to the United States, and likens the same to the rise of pro sports.   For example, in October of 2015, tickets for the League of Legends World Championship Final in Berlin sold out in three minutes.  In the United States, the Dota 2 International event sold out Key Arena in Seattle both of the last two years and had a peak of 14 million people watching the event simultaneously on the internet.  (http://espn.go.com/esports/story/_/id/14551519/esports-having-moment).  

Conceptually, Pocket Starships is right at home in the eSports arena.  The game's real-time space battles, where players join one of two factions and fight for interstellar dominance, can be perfectly molded into a tournament format.  While an update to Pocket Starships, which would allow for tournament modes and position the game for entry into eSports, is in the early stages, SPYR is very excited about the prospects for Pocket Starships in eSports.

While eSports has been steadily growing over the last several years, the marriage between mobile games and eSports is a largely untapped market.  Only one mobile game has really made a splash in the eSports world: Vainglory, developed by Super Evil Megacorp.  Kristian Segerstrale of Super Evil Megacorp, in a May 7, 2015 article published by The Guardian, explained that the eSports opportunity for mobile games can be five times bigger than PC only games like League of Legends because of both the sheer number of mobile devices out there (2.5-3 billion compared to 600-700 million game-ready PCs), but also the immediacy of downloading a mobile game. (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/may/07/vainglory-esports-mobile-games-league-of-legends). 

Paul Thind, SPYR's Managing Director of Games and Apps states: "The beauty of Pocket Starships is that it is truly cross-platform, meaning that with an eSports upgrade, tournaments could be held with players simultaneously playing each other on mobile devices and PCs.  Mobile eSports is in its infancy and we hope to make a mark in that world with Pocket Starships when the time is right."

About SPYR

SPYR, INC. is a holding company that through its wholly owned subsidiary SPYR APPS, LLC, is engaged in mobile application and game publishing and development.  SPYR, INC. also owns and operates an "American Diner" theme restaurant located in the Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania called "Eat at Joe's®" through its other wholly-owned subsidiary, E.A.J.: PHL Airport Inc.  The Company is currently exploring opportunities for additional acquisitions in these and other verticals, including mobile application and game development, in order to expand its holdings, to drive and increase revenue and to generate profits and build value for shareholders.

Safe Harbor Statement:

This release contains forward-looking statements that are based upon current expectations or beliefs, as well as a number of assumptions about future events. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements and the assumptions upon which they are based are reasonable, we can give no assurance or guarantee that such expectations and assumptions will prove to have been correct. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by the use of words like "may," "will," "should," "could," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "believe," "intend," or "project" or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. The reader is cautioned not to put undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, as these statements are subject to numerous factors and uncertainties, including but not limited to: adverse economic conditions, competition, adverse federal, state and local government regulation, international governmental regulation, inadequate capital, inability to carry out research, development and commercialization plans, loss or retirement of key executives and other specific risks. To the extent that statements in this press release are not strictly historical, including statements as to revenue projections, business strategy, outlook, objectives, future milestones, plans, intentions, goals, future financial conditions, events conditioned on stockholder or other approval, or otherwise as to future events, such statements are forward-looking, and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The forward-looking statements contained in this release are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the statements made. Readers are advised to review our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission that can be accessed over the Internet at the SEC's website located at http://www.sec.gov.

Investor Relations Contact:

Stanley Wunderlich
Consulting for Strategic Growth 1 Ltd.
Tel: 800-625-2236 ext. 7770
Email: [email protected]

Marlin Molinaro
Marmel Communications, LLC
(828) 669-0616
[email protected]

SOURCE SPYR, INC.

Related Links

http://spyr.com