Take e-sports. Starcraft arguably launched e-sports and is still immensely popular, not just in Korea but around the world. The last WCG Starcraft grand final in China was apparently watched by some 10000 people who were _present_ at the match - not just watching on streams.
Even when SC2 was only in beta, tournament streams had ~5000 or more people watching live, plus countless more watching VODs later.
Can anyone see ways to monetize this? We could be on the cusp of an e-sports revolution, I'm sure there's a lot that could be done to capitalize on this. Video advertising is an obvious one, but sponsorship opportunities, premium feeds, and other possibilities abound.
Starcraft originally took off so well in Korea largely due to widely available high-speed internet access. How will the changing landscape of internet access affect it's successor?
What about emerging markets? Blizzard have launched SC2 simultaneously in 7 languages on 5 continents. They're trying out different commercialization models in markets such as South America and Russia, will these work? How will battle.net hold up, and can Blizzard succeed in driving 'hardcore' gamers towards a more connected, _social_ experience, or will people continue to complain about Facebook integration?
Plus, I wonder how many people would have downvoted this to express disinterest. Flagging is extra work and pretty much pointless now, the only option is to ignore. There is no way to drown out a small, vocal group.