Game on: Hong Kong computer festival puts e-sports in the spotlight
Hong Kong’s annual computer and gadget festival from August 21 to 24 will feature smart televisions, 3D printers, and plenty of discounts, but one of the main events will be a giant stage for competitive video gamers.
The annual Computer and Communications Festival at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai is a major event for the industry. Organisers said last year’s festival drew 700,000 visitors; companies did around HK$30 billion in business.
Last year’s festival featured a 30-square-metre booth with a stage where players competed in the popular online game League of Legends.
This year, the booth will be an enclosed structure within the Convention Centre, so its interior will not be visible unless you enter it. Instead of 30 square metres, the booth will be significantly more spacious, measuring almost 800 square metres. Inside there will be a 240-square-metre stage, complete with lighting effects and three wall-sized LED screens of the variety seen at large-venue concerts.
Sam Hui Kin-sang, director of the Chamber of Hong Kong Computer Industry, which organises the annual festival, said the focus on competitive gaming, known as esports, reflects its growing popularity in the industry.
Hui points out that esports is big business for companies that make and sell computers and related products.
“The commercial value is very high,” Hui says. “You might be able to buy a normal keyboard for something like HK$100, but a high-end gaming keyboard might cost HK$700. If more people pay attention to this industry, it’ll benefit hardware distributors and producers.”
A local esports company, Cyber Games Arena, is organising the gaming booth, as it did last year, and it will be sponsored by software company Logitech as well as the computer makers Lenovo and Alienware.
Kurt Li Ka-chun, a co-founder of Cyber Games Arena and a former competitive gamer himself, said that after three years of promoting esports in Hong Kong, the activity is finally gaining recognition.
“Now it’s generally accepted,” he said. “We’ve packaged it as a sport, so instead of something you do at smoky cybercafés, it’s a healthy activity.”
