Konami, who you might keep in mind because the one-time developer behind the Metal Gear Solid collection, is establishing a tower in Tokyo that may function a multi-functional esports middle.
The 12-storey constructing goes up in Tokyo’s upscale Ginza procuring district. Siliconera reports that the tower shall be referred to as the Konami Creative Center and can home a state-of-the-art esports enviornment, areas for esports teaching and instruction, and a retail retailer devoted to promoting esports peripherals and different merchandise.
Construction on the tower is about to wrap up in November, which as Kyodo observes shall be in time for the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020.
“The people who participate in esports will in the future stand side by side with those participating in real-life sports like soccer, or even surpass them,” Konami president Kimihiko Higashio mentioned throughout the middle’s brick-laying ceremony, as quoted in Siliconera’s story. “Compared to esports pioneers America and Europe, Japan has still a long way to go. However, looking from another angle, it means Japan has lots of room for growth.”
Naturally, the straightforward joke to make right here could be to say one thing snarky about Konami’s ugly break-up with Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima three years in the past, nevertheless it’s hardly related to the subject of esports.
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Konami remains to be producing the Pro Evolution Soccer series in any case, and in any occasion, anybody with sufficiently deep pockets is free to get into esports selling. And that’s apparently Konami’s objective right here – it particularly desires to boost Japan’s profile in worldwide esports competitors, and to boost the profile of esports as a legitimate type of competitors.
“I want to show the world, from here in Ginza, that the appeal of esports will not lose to that of real-life sports,” Higashio mentioned.
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