Mobile and social games rule at Japan’s biggest game show.
A new console from Sony, and a wealth of new titles aimed at smart phone, tablet and social network users unveiled at annual event.
More than 190 game related companies are displaying the very latest software, hardware and accessories at the four day show in Chiba’s Makuhari Messe. Over 700 new game titles have been unveiled including the latest Biohazard 3D, Final Fantasy and Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 3.
Sony’s long awaited Playstation Vita is a star attraction at TGS, drawing huge lines of gamers eager to give the portable console a try. The new PS-Vita will be released in Japan on December 17 and will take on the “glasses-free” Nintendo 3DS directly, just in time for Christmas.
The star of the show has to be Gree, the mobile start-up founded in 2004 by 34 year old Yoshikazu Tanaka.
The company, debuting at TGS, has made Tanaka Japan’s youngest billionaire, and Gree looks set to expand further, recently opening offices in London and San Francisco.
According to Forbes Gree already has some “140 million users worldwide,” and the vast Gree booth at TGS, is a clear statement of the company’s intent, dwarfing the meager booths of once industry champions Sega and Xbox. Gree is clearly one to watch.
Casual games, such as the “Michael Jackson Experience”, for Xbox Kinect, and games aimed at first time users took center stage at TGS, a clear shift away from the console wars of the past. With smart phone and tablet sales taking off world-wide, the market for quick and fun titles is set to expand. The question remains, can corporate giants like Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo keep up with the next generation of innovative, bedroom-entrepreneurs like Gree’s Tanaka?
Tokyo Game Show is open until Sunday 18th September at Makuhai Messe (Kaihim Makuahi station).
Tickets: ¥1,200 (including tax), Children under elementary school age can enter free.
Official website: www.tgs.cesa.or.jp
