Capcom to promote esports with ‘full force’ throughout 2018

08 February 2018

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In an open message from Capcom, it has been revealed that they aim to make 2018 “Esports Year One” within Japan.

ELEAGUE Street Fighter V Invitational. Credit: USA Today

CEO Kenzo Tsujimoto said, “We at Capcom have been building Esports with our Street Fighter brand outside of Japan for the past 10 years, and now are committed to laying down the foundation to make this year “Esports Year One” within Japan. Drawing upon the markets we have already developed in the U.S. and Europe, we will move forward to promote eSports with the full force of our organization.”

Tsujimoto also noted that in the last year esports competition has been widely discussed in Japan, particularly due to the esports events at the 2022 Asian Games as well as the possible inclusion of esports in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Fighting games have long been trying to make a clear mark in the industry with games such as Super Smash Bros, Tekken and, of course, Street Fighter having long-standing grassroots communities that, in some cases, have managed to develop far beyond their expectations, with events such as EVO and Genesis celebrating the fighting games community.

Capcom’s efforts have already been evident in improving their games’ esports potential; at the start of 2018, a Street Fighter V update with the intention of rejuvenating the game was released, and started to write the wrongs that had been evident in the game following an unstable launch and somewhat rough couple of years for players and fans of the game.

Tsujimoto explained in his message that “the quality of our game software is a vital matter, and one with which our entire company must be involved,”, outlining his continued intent on providing the best product possible.

Over the past year, Street Fighter V has been growing in popularity, and even garnered slots on the Gfinity Elite Series as well as part of ELEAGUE productions.

Esports Insider says: It’s great to see the CEO of a corporation as large as Capcom come out and publicly state his big intentions for esports within his own company. Street Fighter V has been relatively successful thus far, and we expect to see it go further in the near future.