Yatta! Tokyo Game Show was held by massive numbers of well known game developers.
The biggest attraction of this year is "PlayStation Vita" by SONY.
They just announced it right before this event.
It will uses 3G technology through AT&T phone network (in the U.S.) and allows data sharing
and crossplay with PlayStaion 3 and has a new improved handheld console.
The event was held at Makuhari Messe.
It's the second biggest convention center in Japan.
What struck me at first is that a line that formed at the entrance was much shorter than one from last year.
It took only 20 min. for me to get in as it took more than 1 hour in last year.
As we enter the site, we notice a lot of empty spots.
It seems like as social games become popular,
small and mid size traditional game developers and publishers have faded away.
As contrast, I saw big corporations expanded their booth size.
For instance, one of the biggest social game developer, GREE・DeNA had a line of "Companion Girls"
making their huge booth even more noticeable.
And SONY had a line of crowd. Unfortunately, they prohibited any photos,
so I can't show you in detail how Playstation Vita looks like,
but I can certainly say that it has a big improvement on screen and console
such as the format multitouch screen and the rear multitouch pad, motion sensors.
PSVITA will be available to in the U.S. on Feb. 22, 2012. It's so exciting!
Other companies did not come up with a new hardware,
so they just announced new games.
One of them is well known in the U.S., Skyrim.
I took some pictures for you to how it looks to walk around these booths.
Social games have not been presented in Tokyo Game Show until this year,
but it does not mean they did not exist.
They have been developed based on each individual cellular phone technologies,
different technologies, so quality of these games were not that great.
Recently we had a big hit of smart phones in Japan, iPhone as being the biggest hit,
and it changed the whole picture of the industry and improved the quality of these social games.
However, I personally feel that many of these developers are focusing too much on how to make money from these games.
As a result, new games often lack of uniqueness and depth.
I am not sure about games in the U.S., but as we discussed in previous posts,
the Otaku culture in Japan is probably the last resort of staying away from commercial spirits,
I just can not stop hiding my disappointment with seeing 'too commercial' games.
Well, but I don't want to leave with unhappy mood here, so please enjoy pictures that I found at Tokyo Game Show!
