Pole To Win, Inc. (Head Office: Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture; CEO: Tachibana Teppei; hereinafter referred to as PTW), a subsidiary of Pole To Win Holdings Inc. (Head Office: Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo; CEO: Tachibana Teppei; Stock Code: 3657) that supports the resolution of service lifecycle issues, is pleased to announce that it has adopted "CRIWARE®", a middleware product brand provided by CRI Middleware Inc. (Head Office: Shibuya Ward, Tokyo; CEO: Oshimi Masao; hereinafter referred to as CRI), in the development of its project management tool "FACT".

The introduction of "CRIWARE®" has enabled the company to enhance its systems for processing large volumes of video and images during testing. By continuing to promote digital transformation of its operations platform, the company will continue to provide its clients with optimal solutions.

The project management tool "FACT" is a platform that aims to standardize operations by utilizing knowledge and various data obtained through operations, improve operations such as efficiency and quality assurance, and create new businesses and develop human resources through big data analysis. In cooperation with Tencent's testing platform "WeTest", it is also possible to provide one-stop support from test design to execution and analysis of test results in game debugging and software testing.

In addition, since FACT handles large volumes of video and images during game testing, reducing the amount of data needed to improve work efficiency was an issue, so the company has now incorporated CRI's middleware "CRI LiveAct????" and "SmartJPEG????". This allows for high-quality, lightweight data storage, speeding up testing work and enabling future big data utilization.

"FACT" is currently in the final stages of development, with internal testing scheduled to begin in mid-May 2024, and operation involving the game development side of the target games to be tested scheduled to begin around August. As a result, many of the game testing projects currently handled by PTW will be integrated and managed on "FACT," and the company plans to further expand the number of target projects by streamlining operations through standardization.

After the official launch, FACT plans to continue expanding its functions using AI, and is also considering selling the app standalone to external parties, which it hopes will contribute to improving the quality of products and creative work in many industries. In addition, the company plans to exhibit at the 33rd Japan IT Week Spring - Software & App Development Expo -, which will be held from Wednesday, April 24th to Friday, April 26th, where it will introduce FACT, in addition to its main services such as software testing and third-party verification and customer support.

PTW will continue to work with CRI to promote continuous digital transformation through "FACT," and contribute to improving our clients' corporate value more than ever before.

*"CRI", "CRIWARE", "LiveAct", "SmartJPEG" and the CRIWARE logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of CRI Middleware Inc. in Japan and other countries.
*"WeTest" is a trademark or registered trademark of Tencent Japan LLC.
*All other company names and product names mentioned in this document are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
*The information contained in this press release is current as of the date of announcement.

About CRI Middleware, Inc.

With the corporate philosophy of "Enriching society with sound and video," CRI mainly conducts research and development related to audio and video, and deploys the results of this research in various fields, mainly in the gaming and embedded fields, under the middleware product brand "CRIWARE®." Through "CRIWARE," CRI provides technologies and solutions for improving usability and quality, helping developers solve their problems while also supporting the improvement of usability for end users.

【Company Profile】

Company name: CRI Middleware Co., Ltd.
Representative: Masao Oshimi, President and CEO
Head office location: Shibuya Info Tower 11th floor, 20-1 Sakuragaoka-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Established: August 1, 2001
Business description: Research and development of audio, video, etc., sales and support of middleware products, and related contract development
URL: https://www.cri-mw.co.jp/

About CRIWARE, CRI LiveAct and SmartJPEG

CRIWARE is the collective name for the technologies, middleware products, and services provided by CRI. We offer a wide range of solutions that expand on the compression technology that CRI has developed over the years.
CRI LiveAct and SmartJPEG are solutions that can compress and reduce the size of videos and still images while maintaining high image quality. They are highly regarded for reducing the communication load on users by reducing data transfer, and are used on e-commerce sites in a wide range of industries.

About the project management tool "FACT"
"FACT" is a project management tool developed by Pole To Win and CRI. It automatically links with "WeTest", a testing platform from Tencent Japan LLC (Head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo, Representative: Juno Shin, hereinafter Tencent), and provides one-stop support from test design to execution and result analysis.
It has a "collaboration function" that allows many test engineers to work simultaneously in real time, and is designed as a web service that allows reports to be entered directly from the device being tested. It is built on the cloud for ease of scalability.
In addition, because it deals with games, the theme was "a tool that is fun to use," and we achieved a comfortable usability by combining a playful, modern UI/UX with smooth behavior that does not cause stress.