I made it to Japan this week for my first Tokyo Game Show. Yes, in 27 years of usually covering games, I actually have never been on the show until now. Here are a few of my impressions of the event, which is predicted to draw around 200,000 people – a lot of them weekend cosplayers.
Firstly, it is kind of massive. There are 985 firms represented on the fair, in comparison with 787 in 2023. They occupy 3,252 stands, in comparison with 2,682 stands last 12 months. Like last 12 months, 44 countries are collaborating. And 2,850 titles will probably be issued, in comparison with 2,291 a 12 months ago. The numbers have increased in almost every measure; We will see later what the ultimate attendance looks like.
There are some interesting numbers regarding platforms and genres. Although Nintendo isn't on the show, there are 295 Nintendo Switch games, up from 234 last 12 months. Meanwhile, Pocket Pair, the manufacturer of Palworld, was there with a big booth and plenty of cosplayers. Nintendo sued Pocket Pair for making what everyone jokingly called “Pokémon with weapons.”
There are 156 PS4 and 238 PS5 games, up from 144 and 158 a 12 months ago. In fact, Sony was there and showed off the standard of the PlayStation 5 Pro. In this video you may see Gran Turismo on it.
Xbox has 172 X/S games, up from 103 last 12 months, and 86 Xbox One games, up from 78. Microsoft showcased a variety of its latest games resembling Indiana Jones and The Great Circle in a special broadcast on the Tokyo Game Show.
Xbox also announced that Starcraft I and II (from the Blizzard division of the newly acquired Activision Blizzard company) will probably be coming to Game Pass on November fifth, and players heard the Japanese voiceover for the primary time in “Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.”
From Konami, Xbox audiences saw the most recent visual update to Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater with updated graphics, and Japanese studios Denki Works and Critical Reflex celebrated a world premiere with their classically inspired Tanuki Pon's Summer and far more. Gilles Langourieux, CEO of Virtuos, an Asia-focused third-party development company with 3,800 employees, noted that his team of third-party developers helped with the Snake Eater title for greater than two years. He told me that he felt the gaming market was improving. (We hope so. Our theme at GamesBeat Next 2024, October 28-29 in San Francisco, is “Back to Growth”).
There are 625 Steam games, up from 437; 496 PC (previously 363), 188 iOS (previously 161) and 190 Android (previously 163). There are only three PSVR2 titles, down from 12 last 12 months; 6 valve index, down from 19 last 12 months; 32 Meta Quest 2, up from 27 last 12 months; and 6 HTC Vive, up from 19 last 12 months.
This definitely appears like VR is declining by way of market share, while Steam, Sony and Nintendo and even Xbox are in very healthy shape.
In terms of genres, there are 500 motion games, up from 353 last 12 months; 347 RPGs, down from 379 last 12 months; 397 adventure games, up from 340 last 12 months; 208 simulation games, up from 257 last 12 months; 74 shooting games, down from 93 last 12 months; 155 puzzle games, up from 100 last 12 months; 96 ARPGs, up from 60 last 12 months; 187 motion adventures, up from 115 last 12 months; 51 sports, up from 29 last 12 months; 28 races, in comparison with 29 last 12 months; and 47 motion shoots, up from 44 last 12 months.
I would love to notice that I haven't seen nearly as many layoffs at Japanese or Asian game firms as I actually have within the West. SNK CEO Kenji Matsubara said in an interview with me in Tokyo that the Japanese gaming industry can have taken a more conservative approach in the course of the pandemic and never hired as many individuals as Western firms. This meant they didn’t must break with the tradition of lifelong employment and cut many roles because the post-pandemic period led to a decline in gaming demand.
A lot of executives noted in interviews that Chinese gaming firms have turn out to be strong. Ken Kutaragi, father of the PlayStation, gave a keynote address on the Tokyo Game Show by which he foresaw a shift from computer entertainment (which he said grew out of toys after which video games) to AI-infused media using supercomputing technology. He predicts an age of “real-time computing” that will probably be 100 times larger than the gaming industry we’ve today. That may be very optimistic.
Meanwhile, he pointed to the success of Chinese gaming company Game Science, which sold 20 million copies in Black Myth Wukong's first month of sales. Along with other hits like Genshin Impact, Zenless Zen Zero and Honkai Star Rail, it looks as if the Chinese have found their happiness.
During the week I visited Sony Electronics, Sega, SNK and more. And for the primary time in Tokyo, I hosted a banquet for Japanese game firms with Xsolla, making GamesBeat a reputation in Japan for the primary time in eight years. On the last trip eight years ago, Matsubara, then at Sega, was also on a panel I used to be co-hosting with the Canadian government when she suggested Japanese developers placed on a show in Canada.
This was an indication of the worldwide movements in gaming, and we're seeing more of that today. SNK's sister company, Manga Productions, has acquired Toei, a maker of manga and anime shows, and is using that talent to coach interns in Saudi Arabia. SNK CEO Kenji Matsubara has grown the corporate from 200 to over 600 since its acquisition by the Misk Foundation in Saudi Arabia.
This allowed the corporate to bring back SNK's fan favorite, Fatal Fury, for the primary time in 26 years.
In fact, Mike Milanov, head of Qiddiya Gaming in Saudi Arabia, had a booth on the Tokyo Game Show with a cyberpunk theme to advertise the esports and gaming district of Qiddiya, a contemporary city that the Saudis outside of Riyadh as a “Giga” project.”
Qiddiya hosted a bunch of Street Fighter esports stars at his booth – and it drew an enormous crowd.
It is a world gaming company. It's good to recollect this when depressions and economic cycles hit a certain a part of the corporate. I'm excited to see a component of the world – long overdue for me – where gaming is prospering.
