As a veteran esports organisation, Splyce is consistently growing as the culture around it does as well. Part of that growth has included partnerships with the Boston Celtics’ NBA 2K League team, CLTX Crossover Gaming, two major investments back to back and part ownership of the newest Overwatch League team which will be representing Toronto, Canada.
With this growth and, especially in this day and age, the reality is that now more than ever – content is king. With headquarters in Rochester, New York, Splyce has taken the route that many other organisations and developers are by creating its own production subsidiary. Emberlore was created this past June to focus on Splyce content throughout its 7+ teams and content creators.
We spoke with Mike McKenna, Vice President of Content for Splyce and Emberlore about building a studio from the ground up and the organisations dedication to content.
Esports Insider: What was the idea behind the creation of Emberlore?
Mike McKenna: Emberlore was spun out of the production unit at Splyce as we continued to create esports focused content and understand what our fans are looking for.
We know that the gaming community is hungry for story-driven original content, so we built Emberlore to unite the vast gaming audience with brands that have an authentic approach.
ESI: What was the process of building a dedicated physical studio for Emberlore content?
Mike: It’s really exciting to building a studio from the ground up.
“Luckily we had a small, but talented and scrappy, international in-house team with years of experience in a few disciplines”
Luckily we had a small, but talented and scrappy, international in-house team with years of experience in a few disciplines from film, TV, commercial production, even theatre and documentaries. Working with a creative crew that comes to the table each day with a spectrum of ideas and a passion for storytelling makes the work seem easy. With that said, it’s important to scale properly so we continue to work with freelance and future candidates who are talented and like-minded to join our team.
ESI: Outside of Splyce related content what will Emberlore focus on?
Mike: Beyond Splyce content, Emberlore is focused on creating content that connects with our community, including competitive and casual gaming audiences. With this fan-focused approach, the quality of content will attract brands that truly care about the gaming audience and connect them together.
“One strong initiative is to create new and expanding programming content IP”
ESI: How have the recent investments in Splyce helped achieve things like Emberlore?
Mike: It’s still early days at Emberlore, and the recent investments in Splyce have definitely shown that we are on the path to continued success.
At the moment we’re working with our investment partners to develop plans on how to best service our fans and clients. One strong initiative is to create new and expanding programming content IP. With new ideas come new resources requirements, so having great investment partners that are knowledgeable has exponential value to me.
ESI: How did the first episode of GameDay go? What do you hope it will develop into in the future?
Mike: The first episode of GameDay was an ambitious collaboration between our Berlin office and our Rochester studio. The concept was a brainchild of Marty and me, and it was awesome to see it finally launch. To be honest, no one is doing a pre-game show like us. It was better than I anticipated and sets the bar high on this type of formatted show on Twitch.
In the future, I’d like to see a fully engaging day of content around GameDay and we have a few more ideas that we plan to roll out in the coming months.