“Street Fighter V is the first Street Fighter game that’s been created with eSports in mind,” said Capcom’s Matt Dahlgren. Capcom recently launched the Capcom Pro Tour, created as a destination for competitive Street Fighter gaming. “We’re going through tremendous growth, even on this second season. We’ve pretty much doubled in size compared to the first season.”
Events have been key to fostering Street Fighter‘s competitive community. Capcom now partners with over 40 events globally and in December, they’ll be holding the 3rd Capcom Cup. This year’s event is going to be a big one, and a landmark eSports moment for fighting games. “This December at Capcom Cup will be the first time a a fighting game player walks away with a six figure paycheck from a single win.”
Dahlgren gave some insight into their collaborative relationship with Twitch when it comes to eSports. “Twitch is a huge partner of Capcom. We’re actually 50/50 partners of Capcom Pro Tour, so it’s not Capcom effort, it’s a Capcom/Twitch effort.”
“They’re making the right moves when it comes to eSports and the rest of the publishers are paying attention and they’re growing up that aspect of their business.”
Capcom has been working closely with influential streaming talent to market their games. “There’s a tremendous amount of reach when it comes to dealing with live streamers and we’re paying attention to the ones that are out there pushing our products and we’d like to work with them more and better yet on the Capcom Pro Tour. We hire them out to handle some of our broadcasts. It’s very integral to our strategy.”
