Tesla Shifts on Gaming, Incorporating Steam into Vehicles

In today’s edition of the Front Office Sports newsletter, we’re taking a look at an auto manufacturer and clean energy company doubling down on gaming.

Leveling Up

Tesla is accelerating toward a world where their vehicles are gaming systems on wheels.

On Friday, Tesla founder and CEO?Elon Musk?tweeted?that the company is “making progress toward?Steam?integration. Demo probably next month.”

• Tesla currently offers a select number of built-in games in the?Tesla Arcade?feature in its Model S and X cars, including “Cuphead,” “Stardew Valley,” and “Sonic the Hedgehog 1.”
• Adding the Steam platform would potentially open up the gaming options to a huge library of titles. Steam?reached?50,000 games?on its platform last year.
• Further details on whether Tesla would allow full access to the Steam library and other nuances have not emerged.

In December, Tesla modified the gaming system to be?disabled while its cars are in motion, following intervention from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Game Changer

The auto manufacturer and clean energy company has a?team?of software engineers in Seattle?focused on gaming?and is building a similar group in Austin. The company has been porting over popular titles to Tesla Arcade.?

Tesla said last year it would bring “The Witcher” and “Cyberpunk 2077” onto the platform, but both titles have been delayed.?

Musk acknowledged some technical challenges related to that project in December: “Lot of internal debate as to whether we should be putting effort towards generalized gaming emulation vs. making individual games work well.”

Conversation Starters

• Premier League clubs are expected to agree to a voluntary ban on new gambling shirt sponsorship deals, according to the Times.
• Hear about the day's most important business of sports stories in five minutes or less by listening to our daily podcast The Leadoff.
• Microsoft has submitted “Second Request” documents to the FTC regarding its $68.7 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard.
• Brands poured more cash into NFTs and trading cards than any other segment of NIL activity, comprising more than 17% of the NIL market, per Opendorse.
• In his remarks during the ACC’s media days, commissioner Jim Phillips recognized the conference’s concerns, but didn’t delineate a clear strategy for how it can move forward.

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