After months of anticipation and rumor within the interactive entertainment industry, Sir Richard Branson, Founder of the Virgin Group, yesterday unveiled Virgin Gaming, an online destination for competitive console gamers. Built on a pioneering online gaming platform, Virgin Gaming enables gamers of all skill levels from around the world to meet, challenge and play each other in head to head matches and tournaments for cash, points and prizes.
What this entails so far is the opening of an online destination that will appeal to competitive console gamers. To celebrate the new launch, the website is offering $1 million to be given out over the next 12 months through promotional giveaways and online tournaments.
“Gamers want something new, something interactive and something fun. Virgin Gaming is just that – access to play the best games in super competitive tournaments with anyone in the world and win the biggest prizes and the most rewards,” said Sir Richard Branson, Founder of the Virgin Group, and gamer-in-training. “Giving away over $1 million in cash and prizes this year is proof. We’ve had great success with Virgin Games and Virgin Interactive Entertainment and recognized the enormous potential of an online community of 40 million daily users. I welcome gamers from novice to expert to join the online Virgin Gaming community.”
Virgin Gaming will host a roster of competitive, triple-A titles from the world’s leading publishers in the interactive entertainment industry. Announcements of specific partners and titles will be made over the next several months.
This new venture will allow gamers from around the world to meet up and play competitively while offering social networking capabilities.
In a partnership with worldgaming.com, founded by William Levy and Zack Zeldin, the new Virgin Gaming group helmed by Rob Segal will seek to attract gamers with a specifically designed website for the competitive gaming realm. Sporting robust functionality and secure transactions capability, the website will ensure automatic results verification, a skill rating system and reputation management for all members of the website.
“The entrepreneurial spirit and philosophy for fun and innovation shared between World Gaming and Virgin was critical in the creation of Virgin Gaming, and we are eager to maximize its potential with the online gaming community,” said Rob Segal, CEO of Virgin Gaming. “With Virgin Gaming, we’re offering members more than just a place to compete. We’re offering them the best, safest and most secure online experience with the fresh, fun approach Virgin is known for.”
“Gaming is very competitive by nature, and competition is always more exciting when there’s something on the line. There are plenty of tournament leagues out there for the pros, but we created Virgin Gaming as a platform for all gamers to have the experience of playing each other with more at stake than just pride,” adds Virgin Gaming President, Billy Levy.
