IOC: Augmented reality will play a much more important role and will more or less have taken over te

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach says that rapid technological changes including Augmented Reailty (AR) within the video game industry will be a big hurdle for esports from making an appearance in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Bach said that experts that have met with the IOC, says the games we know will have "disappeared" in five or less years and that “virtual reality and augmented reality will play a much more important role and will more or less have taken over technology-wise.”

The IOC president says this to explain why esports may not be included in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

“If you were to include one of these games we know now for ’24, the young generation in ’24 may say, ‘This has been played by my grandfather. What is this?’” he added.

This adds to other reasons why the IOC has been somewhat hesitant with their approach to the esports industry thus far.

“There is agreement [that] we can’t, and we should not, ignore the growth of the egames industry and the interactivity of it for the young generation. That we should engage with this community […] On the other hand, on how to engage, there are many uncertainties,” Bach said.

Another issue is the apparent display of violence in most esports titles, and the IOC’s values aversion of such.

The influence of esports has crossed over into traditional sports with the 2019 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games announcement having esports as a medal sport. It will be the first time that such a thing will happen in a sporting event that the IOC sanctions.

Bach has mentioned there were fewer problems with some games, as it relates to violence, then with esports titles such as Dota 2, League of Legends, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.