Esports Business Management

This module will introduce you to a range of digital tools for the workplace. Important business skills such as management, collaboration and teamwork are will be taught and practised in this module. Other opportunities such as gaining the inspiring digital enterprise award (iDEA), completing LinkedIn learning assessments for Microsoft software applications, and completing collaborative video creation tasks will increase your digital and business skills as you progress towards the completion of this module.

In this module, you will learn how to produce original gaming content for Esports. Working individually and within a team, you will explore game design principles, processes and technologies utilised for game content creation and level design. You will develop your skills for modding— altering existent game titles to create completely new gaming experiences, as well as understanding industry-standard practices for game prototyping and testing.

In this module, you will learn the background of the cultural phenomenon that is Esports and explore the various communities that engage within Esports from gamers to developers, managers and consumers. Historical industry development and future growth will provide the context for today's Esports environment with engagement from professionals who are at the cutting edge of the industry. This will help to develop your understanding of how Esports has grown over recent years, the rapid emergence in popularity in Esports and the future direction of the Esports industry as it takes root into mainstream consciousness. 

The module aims to equip you with the key technological and distribution knowledge required by a creative digital practitioner, not only in the game's domain but across the broader digital industries. In the second part of this module, you will build conceptualised interactive prototypes in our maker space, using technologies such as Raspberry Pi, Arduino and rudimentary Processing to realise your ideas and their effective use in a Distributed Esports arena

This module provides you with an introduction to the key functions of the esports ecosystem whilst allowing you to see how they work. You will get an understanding of functions including people management, accounting, marketing and operations and how they underpin business success. You will look at a range of esports businesses including start-ups, esports community groups, large-scale enterprises and multinationals from different esports sectors. This is your first opportunity to see what makes esports businesses tick and will help you think about your future learning and employment journeys

In this module, you will build an understanding of the legal frameworks to protect players, streamers and live audiences from all forms of illegal activity within a live broadcast event. This module will further cover the key principles of ethics within Esports, risk management, human resources, government health & safety legislation and ‘duty of care’. You will also explore the criticality of fair play, equality and inclusivity within Esports.  Ethics will be explored from the perspectives of financial, conceptual, to physical and emotional harm within Esports. This module will be supported by professional services offered by the University and other institutions who will support and guide you through the module

In this module, you will explore the ways in which the latest advances in gaming technologies are shaping the landscape of Esports. In particular, this module will focus on Extended Reality technologies: Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality for competitive gaming. Throughout this module, you will familiarise yourself with these technologies and environments, reflecting on their affordances and potential for the development of new competitive experiences, broadcasting, and commercialisation of E-Sports.

This module will teach you the foundations of planning, designing and theming an Esports event as you work in small groups to develop your event ‘pitch’ to an industry panel of judges (PitchFest). Working collaboratively and with industry experts, you will conceive and design a tournament event for live broadcast in term 2, which considers the critical event elements of live delivery of your event concept. The winning pitch as selected by an industry panel will be delivered for the University of Salford Esports Tournament in the final trimester, where the cohort will work collaboratively within various roles, to deliver the tournament event for streaming and broadcast.

Following on from the first-year module,  you will learn the key issues using Broadcast & Streamed Technologies Used in Enabling a broadcast/Streamed Esports Tournament. Enabling the development and capability to organise and host the tournament event delivered in T2. This will include key networking application, synchronisation challenges and understanding Over Networks and the public Internet. Challenges of supporting UHD media And HFR rates necessary for Basic to elite esports environments. The key activities for the module will be directed toward the broadcast and Streaming requirements needed to successfully stage the tournament during the final trimester. Keu Issues need planning and addressing to enable Tournament level ability, Link Processor speed, storage, flexibility, control and orchestration. The understanding of Maximum ability within the constraints of the Network environment are key elements to be learnt in this module.

On this module, you will work together with the rest of the cohort in organizing and delivering a live Esports tournament event on which you will be assessed and which will be streamed and broadcast. The tournament theme and design will be based on the winning event pitch from the Trimester 1 Planning and Delivery module.

Working collaboratively with each other and industry partners, you will implement the winning pitch plan, assign each other critical team roles, develop your content for the tournament and organise the teams required to attend on the event. Additionally, you will be executing the marketing plan targeted toward your chosen demographic, build your event brand as you develop a unique Esports experience for your Esports consumers and planning all the logistical operational activities required for a successful online event. This will bring together all the previous modules into one event and provide the opportunity to develop your pathway skills further towards your chosen role within the industry after graduation

Esports Professional Practice and Enterprise provides you with the opportunity to explore key employability and entrepreneurial skills to effectively engage with career planning and job searches. The module enables you to design strategies for launching your own enterprise and to seek work placements associated with your planned career path with the opportunity to engage with an industry-based production activity (work placement) and/or design and manage live brief production(s) for external organisations (charities, corporate clients, other university depts.). Furthermore, the module enables you to explore and reflect on your current digital presence and design a new professional online presence, which presents you as a new emerging practitioner ready for industry.

This interactive module allows you to work in teams, developing campaigns to meet a client's needs. For students on the level 5 HND esports pathway, this will use the Esports Society as the client, providing you with the opportunity to engage with an organisation and provide innovative marketing campaigns.  Students on this pathway will also work on a campaign for the T2 Tournament, drawn from established industry partnerships. The module embeds group working skills and the experiential approach provides the opportunity to gain experience in defining, planning and delivering a marketing project.