Heaven Media's Corin Cole answers some questions on the announced acquisition of three new brands.

As you have probably read in this press release, Heaven Media have purchased EnemyDown, X-Ray Anti-Cheat and Mixes.

Pre-empting a number of community questions that were certain to be asked, Corin took some time to provide some answers on the biggest topics of this move.

Why did Heaven Media buy these websites?

Heaven Media purchased this group of sites as we felt it would compliment what we already had in our portfolio, and it gave us a chance to grow our group, and at the same time support the community in rebuilding what was once a great set of websites. Given the choice of allowing these brands to fade and die or purchasing them, as gamers at Heaven Media it was a no-brainer.

If we hadn’t purchased them, there was always a risk that they could disappear forever, and we couldn’t let that happen.

Heaven Media now own many esports websites, are you trying to control esports?

We aren’t trying to take over or control esports, we are trying to compliment what we already have as a business, but at the same time help competitive gaming grow in the UK and Europe, and we saw this as an opportunity to deliver something the community wants.

We are very keen to ensure to maintain the level of independence that each Heaven Media site has, and that has been shown recently by the independence of Esports Heaven - not all tournaments have been featured on our various coverage sites - and we’ll be looking to ensure that this level of professionalism and independence remains in place with these new websites.

What are Heaven Media’s plans for EnemyDown?

We have some great plans internally, we’re very excited by the opportunities that EnemyDown presents us, but we are not in a position to present them yet, as there is a lot of hard work to do in the background.

We also need time to assess the websites, the capabilities, the code, and make a decision as to how we proceed forward with that, too.

We certainly don’t want to rush into anything, making mistakes that could harm the websites, and we will be looking for community guidance and help over the coming months.

Will the Mixes service be re-launching?

Absolutely! One of our key responsibilities is to ensure that we bring back a popular service, and do so in a way that will both bring back the people who enjoyed it in the first place, and also new users.

Once again, this will take time, we don’t want to rush anything, and we will bring it back when it is appropriate and when it is ready.

Will we see EnemyDown hosting big prize tournaments again, similar to the Eurokrieg events of a year ago?

At Heaven Media we pride ourselves on working with blue chip companies, corporate partners and manufacturers to support competitions, and where possible we would like to expand these partnerships to include support for EnemyDown.

What are your views on how TNWA have handled EnemyDown leading up to your purchase?

I don’t think it’s appropriate for us to talk about what TNWA may or may not have done on the past, and I also don’t think it’s appropriate to dwell on the past. At Heaven Media we are looking forwarding to working on EnemyDown, X-Ray and Mixes, to help support them, and to help them grow through 2010.

Are you going to retain any of the former TNWA employees?

That’s a difficult question to answer right now, but we are talking to staff that worked on EnemyDown and X-Ray in the past, to find out if the skill sets are a match for what we are trying to achieve at Heaven Media, and it would be remiss of us to ignore the experience they hold in running the sites we have purchased.

Do Heaven Media now have any responsibility for the UKeSA prize payments?

I want to make it absolutely clear that Heaven Media has no link or association with UKeSA. The purchase of these three sites is in no way connected to TNWA’s previous dealings with UKeSA, and those who are owed money by UKeSA should go back to the owners of that organisation.

How quickly will we see changes to EnemyDown?

The short answer is “not very quickly”. The longer answer is that we want to take time, we don’t want to rush. We want to sit back, assess what we’ve bought, and assess both where the sites are right now and where the community would like them to be through 2010. Only when we have put together full plans for all three websites will we be willing to launch any changes.

Will EnemyDown be fully moved to the new (.eu) website, and if so when?

As per the previous question, we are yet to make any concrete decisions, and this includes issues relating to website hosting and code issues. Only once we have made a full review of all these technical aspects will we be able to make such a decision. For now, it’s service as normal.

Does Heaven Media have plans to change anything regarding what games are supported on EnemyDown?

We certainly want to continue to support the games that are played on EnemyDown right now; however we will look to expand the site through 2010 with new games, as and when the community want them.

We are not looking to limit the site in any way, and we are not looking to remove any games that are already popular without consulting with the community first.

Heaven Media already owns Esports Heaven, does that site still have a future?

We believe that for now it does, we aren’t planning any closures of sites as a result of this purchase, and once we understand the ambitions and goals of all of the sites in our group. However I firmly believe that both sites can operate alongside each other, and complement each other, because they offer different styles of tournaments.

Do you have any future plans regarding X-Ray Anti-Cheat?

X-Ray has been supporting many different leagues and competitions for some time now, including EnemyDown and Esports Heaven, and we are keen to continue offering that support to ensure that all gamers are as protected as possible against any cheating.

Does the purchase of these three sites put you in direct competition with the likes of ESL and ClanBase?

We have a good working relationship with both ESL and ClanBase and we will continue to work alongside these companies where our goals and objectives overlap. I don’t see us necessarily competing directly with either of them, and firmly believe what we can offer will compliment what is already out there in the esports world.