NTT East held a press conference on Tuesday, January 21, 2020 at 11:00 a.m. to explain the outline of the new company, NTTe-Sports Corporation, which will specialize in e-sports.
Purpose of Establishing a New Company
NTTe-Sports Inc. is a new company scheduled to be established in 2020.
Against the backdrop of the recent expansion of the e-sports market and the spread of nationwide initiatives, the company will plan and contract e-sports events, operate facilities, provide ICT solutions, enhance support (education), and revitalize local communities through these activities.
The joint venture includes NTT Ad, NTT West, NTT Urban Solutions, SKY Perfect JSAT, and Taito Corporation, and will develop the e-sports market in a variety of directions.
NTTe-Sports' upcoming initiatives include the opening of a symbolic place in Tokyo's Akihabara UDX in the summer of 2020.
Co-hosting the "Toushin Festival 2020 -World Championship of ARCADE-" in May 2020 with Taito Co.
Ltd. and Third Wave Co., Ltd. announced that they will expand and provide support for the e-sports club launch support program.
Exhibition Match to be Held
At the press conference for the establishment of NTTe-Sports, an exhibition match "RISING STAGE" was held to allow people to actually experience current e-sports.
Puyopuyo eSports
At first, using the puzzle game "Puyo Puyo eSports" released by SEGA, the participants played a long-distance communication match and were introduced to the "CLIP-Live" battle analysis and visualization system.
Mr. Hasebe of TERA HORNS, an e-sports team made up of NTT East employees, was in charge of play-by-play, and an exhibition match was held between Mr. Shibata of TERA HORNS and Mr. Yoshinari from Hokkaido Yakumo Hospital.
In this match, the "CLIP-Live" was also used to explain the situation of the match.
CLIP-LIVE" is characterized by its ability to show highlights, graph the number of "Puyos" on the screen, and show the timing of the chains, making it easy to see the match development and status visually, in addition to the game screen.
Street Fighter V Type Arcade
An exhibition match using CAPCOM's popular fighting game "Street Fighter V," which is synonymous with e-sports, was also held.
Nanai-san was the game's live commentator, Yuka Kuramochi, a producer of G-STAR GAMING, and Nemo, a professional gamer who works for Square Enix and belongs to Team Liquid, appeared on stage as players. The three actually played against each other using Taito's "Street Fighter V Type Arcade," which is currently available in game arcades nationwide.
For the Development of e-Sports in Japan
During the Q&A session at the end of the press conference, NTTe-Sports Corporation announced that it is aiming for an operating profit of 4 billion yen in 5 years.
In the e-sports market, which is still growing, the addition of NTT's expertise in telecommunication networks and networking is expected to further increase the growth of the industry as a whole.
We will keep a close eye on future developments.