X Games Aspen "didn't want to completely abandon the X Fest that normally runs concurrently at the mountain's base area," so amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, they "decided to take it virtual," according to Andrew Travers of the ASPEN TIMES. The virtual X Fest is an "immersive, interactive environment aimed at giving a taste of the on-site experience that isn't available this year." Its developers believe it "will be the primary way some experience X Games this year." The on-snow action "might be the main draw at X Games," but X Fest is "integral to the in-person X Games experience." The virtual version "aims to approximate that." Free to play, it "runs straight from a browser ... and allows you to roam freely about the virtual fest," and "when you enter, you customize your avatar." The environment is a "sort of fantasy version of the base of Buttermilk and the terrain of X Fest at the X Games venue." Developers used "photos and video from X Fest's past to build this world." Like the in-person X Fest, there is "some product-pushing from sponsors, some sweepstakes and some more experience-based stops along the way" (ASPEN TIMES, 1/29).
ACTION NEWS? THE INFORMATION's Dotan & Toonkel cite sources as saying that ESPN is "trying to sell its X Games extreme sports franchise." The sale is reportedly "part of a broader review of ESPN’s assets as the company tries to decide which businesses are essential to maintaining its cable TV audience or could be helpful in adding subscribers to its streaming service, ESPN+." ESPN "has explored selling its Latin American networks in the past," but those are "not expected to be unloaded as part of the current process." This comes as the pandemic "has accelerated" the "shift of people away from cable toward streaming" (THEINFORMATION.com, 1/28).
