I arrived in Japan this week for my first Tokyo Game Show. Yes, in 27 years of regular coverage of the Games, I have never been on the show until now. Here are some of my impressions of the event, which should attract around 200,000 people or more — many of them cosplayers over the weekend.
An update: TGS organizers said preliminary figures show 274,739 visitors attended the event. That’s up 12.9 percent from last year’s 243,238.
First, it is very large. There are 985 companies in the show, compared to 787 in 2023. They occupy 3,252 booths as against 2,682 booths last year. 44 countries are participating, which is the same as a year ago. And 2,850 titles are on display compared to 2,291 a year ago. By almost every measure, the numbers are rising. We will see later how the final attendance is.
There are some interesting personalities across platforms and genres. While Nintendo isn’t at the show, there are 295 Nintendo Switch games, up from 234 last year. Meanwhile, PocketPear, creator of Paulworld, was there with a large booth and many cosplayers. Nintendo sued PocketPear, which everyone jokingly called “Pokémon with a gun.”
There are 156 PS4 and 238 PS5 games, up from 144 and 158 a year ago. In fact, Sony was showing off the quality of the PlayStation 5 Pro there. You can see the Gran Turismo running on it in this video.
Xbox has 172 X/S games, up from 103 last year, and 86 Xbox One games, up from 78. Microsoft showed off a bunch of new games like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle in a special broadcast at the Tokyo Game Show.
Xbox also announced that Starcraft I and II (from the Blizzard division of the newly acquired Activision Blizzard business) would be coming to GamePass on November 5, and players heard Japanese voices in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle for the first time.
From Konami, Xbox audiences saw a fresh visual update with updated graphics on Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, and Japanese studios Denki Works and Critical Reflex debuted the world premiere of their classically inspired Tanuki Pon’s Summer. What and more. Gilles Langourieux, CEO of Virtuos, an Asia-focused external development company with 3,800 people, noted that his team of external developers contributed to the Snake Eater title for more than two years. He told me that he feels like the gaming market is improving. (We hope to see our theme return to development at GamesBetNext 2024 on October 28-29 in San Francisco).
There are 625 Steam games, up from 437. 496 PC, up from 363, 188 iOS, up from 161, and 190 Android, up from 163. There are only three PSVR2 titles, down from 12 last year. 6 valve index, down from 19 last year; 32 in MetaQuest 2, down from 27 last year; and 6 HTC Vive, down from 19 last year.
It certainly feels like VR is on the decline in terms of market share, while Steam, Sony and Nintendo and even Xbox are in very healthy shape.
By genre, there are 500 action games, up from 353 last year. 347 RPGs, down from 379 last year; 397 adventure games, up from 340 last year; 208 simulation games, down from 257 last year. 74 shooting games, down from 93 last year. 155 puzzle games, up from 100 last year; 96 ARPGs, up from 60 last year; 187 action-adventures, up from 115 last year; 51 games, up from 29 last year; 28 racing, down from 29 last year; and 47 action shootings, up from 44 last year.
I will note that I haven’t seen as much sorting among Japanese or Asian game companies as I’ve seen in the West. SNK CEO Kenji Matsubara said in an interview with me in Tokyo that the Japanese game industry may have taken a more conservative approach during the pandemic, not hiring as many people as Western companies have. . As a result, they didn’t have to break with the tradition of lifelong employment and cut many jobs as post-pandemic times led to a drop in demand for gaming.
Several executives noted in interviews that Chinese game companies are strong. Ken Kataragi, the father of PlayStation, gave a keynote speech at the Tokyo Game Show where he outlined the shift from computer entertainment (which he saw growing from toys and then video games) to AI-driven media with supercomputing technology. said He predicts an era of “real-time computing” that will be 100 times bigger than our game industry today. This is very optimistic.
Meanwhile, he noted the success of Chinese game company Game Science, which sold 20 million copies of Black Math Wukong in its first month of sales. With other hits like Genshin Impact, Zenless Zen Zero and Honkai Star Rail, it feels like the Chinese have come into their own.
During the week, I visited Sony Electronics, Sega, SNK and more. And, for the first time in Tokyo, I co-hosted a dinner party for Japanese game companies with Xsolla, making a mark for GamesBeat in Japan for the first time in eight years. On a previous trip eight years ago, Matsubara, then at Sega, was also on a panel I moderated with the Canadian government as they prepared Japanese goddesses to set up a show in Canada.
It was a symbol of global movements in gaming, and we see even more of it today. SNK’s sister company, Manga Productions, acquired Toei, a maker of manga and anime shows, and is using that talent to train interns in Saudi Arabia. SNK CEO Kenji Matsubara has grown the company from 200 to more than 600 since being acquired by Saudi Arabia’s Musk Foundation.
This enabled the company to bring back SNK’s fan favorite Fatal Fury for the first time in 26 years.
In fact, Mike Milanoff, head of Qadia Gaming in Saudi Arabia, had a booth at the Tokyo Game Show with a cyberpunk theme to promote the esports and gaming district of Qadia, a modern city that Saudis call a “city outside Riyadh.” Giga” is being built. project.”
Qiddiya hosted a panel of Street Fighter esports stars at their booth — and it drew a huge crowd.
It is a global gaming business. It’s good to remember when the blues and business cycles hit any part of the business. I’m glad to see a part of the world — one I’ve been long overdue to visit — where gaming is thriving.
Credit : venturebeat.com
