Creating the Ultimate Venue for Games Culture

Our guest is Jon Satterley from Melbourne Australia. He is CEO & Co-Founder at Fortress Australia.

Our discussion included:

How a passion for heavy metal music and the world of entertainment led to the creation of a cathedral to games culture.

Jon’s career spanning music, entertainment, and video games, including the value of spending 3 years cleaning toilets.

How Jon took his experience as Chief Digital Officer at Village Roadshow to work on creating his games culture enterprise. And decided to create his own opportunity to include his passions in life.

How the arcade experience from the 1980’s could be brought back to life in a modern setting.

Creating Fortress Australia - ‘We are Australia’s number one games culture company.’

Why can’t esports support a venue on its own?

First, the role of the publishers who constrain an organization to scale to a massive size.

Second, the limitations of size for most markets, including Australia.

And third, you have a business model that is at the whims of players that you have little control over. That makes it hard to find investors.

The role of publishers in creating a gaming venue – how to make it work for both parties.

Other sources of revenue that are necessary to make it all work, especially with significant investors.

“We build cathedrals for gamers.” And epic, awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping, walk in and have your head torn off.  People are immersed in their culture. And so, they spend money.

The cost of creating venues of this proportion.

The future of Fortress Australia.

How to draft off of other events, both local and international.

The Olympics – should they include esports in their official program?

How traditional sports impact the approach to esports.

Episode Webpage: https://www.gamerschangelivespodcast.com/creating-the-ultimate-venue-for-games-culture-with-jon-satterley

*  *  *

FEATURED IN THIS EPISDOE:

Jon has been part of the entertainment industry for 30+ years, managing bands, building record companies, creating strategies for theme parks, and advising cinemas and distribution companies at the most senior level. Jon established Roadrunner Records in Australia (the world's biggest metal record company) in the nineties and was subsequently promoted to Senior VP of Digital and moved to NYC for 5 years as part of the Warner Music Group.

In 2018 Jon decided that gaming - his life passion (well…. that and metal) - was the place he wanted to be. Jon partnered with Adrian Giles, a renowned tech entrepreneur, to found Fortress Australia…with the aim to create the ultimate "Home of Games". Fortress is now Australia's #1 games culture company.

Jon holds a BA/LLB (Hons) from Uni of Melb and an MBA from Melbourne Business School.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/satterley

Email:  jon@fortressesports.com

Website: https://www.fortressmelbourne.com

*  *  *

Please subscribe to our podcast wherever you are listening to this episode.

Leave us a rating and a review if you like our content for others to discover what we are doing.

And tell your friends!

CONNECT WITH US ELSEWHERE:

Visit our website at https://www.gamerschangelivespodcast.com/  to learn more about our program, our blog, and sign up for our emails to be notified of upcoming episodes.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GamersChangeLives

Twitter: https://twitter.com/thegclpodcast

PRODUCTION:

Creator and host: Tom Leonard (USA) - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomeleonard/

Producer: Reginald Nsowah (Ghana) - https://www.linkedin.com/in/reginald-nsowah-09352929/ 

ABOUT THE SHOW:

Play Games. Create Jobs. Change Lives.

This is a show about how to build an esports business from literally anywhere in the world where each week we showcase the journey of esports entrepreneurs and others to learn how they solved a particular problem that everyone will ultimately face.

In Season Two our theme is “Follow the Money”.

I am your host, Tom Leonard. I have a background in entertainment marketing. After working with many amazing esports entrepreneurs from emerging markets, they inspired me to create a show to tell their stories so that others can be motivated to create their own esports business. Gaming and esports can create jobs tackling the problem of global youth unemployment. Creating jobs from playing games. What could be better than that?

Thanks for listening to The Gamers Change Lives Podcast!