Tokyo Game Show stakes a claim for Japan on the global stage | Opinion

Why did E3 die, yet Tokyo Game Show endured? Leaving Japan's premier gaming trade show, this was the question dominating my thoughts.

It was an unusual event compared to previous years. Many major publishers attended as normal, but without the big games to show for it. Bandai Namco's booth was dominated by Dragon Ball Z and Sword Art Online tie-in games, while Square Enix's biggest showing was a remake of Dragon Quest 3.

It was the year Sony made their first appearance at the show since 2019, yet that too was without a major new game to show for it, its presence half-accosted by Capcom's Monster Hunter Wilds that also dominated the partner company's booth. Sony's booth was otherwise a mishmash of a gacha machine to win Astro Bot t-shirts if you were lucky to get access to one of the four booths at their station with a demo of the already-released title, and two demo units showcasing PS5 Pro to a very select group of press and players.

They did help out Kojima for his stage show revealing new information about Death Stranding 2, but it's not like the game was playable, nor was there even as much as a mention of the game anywhere near the otherwise sterile-feeling booth (by comparison, at Sony's last showcase in 2019, the booth prominently featured images promoting the first Death Stranding title).

Wandering the floor, with the exception of SEGA who prominently celebrated its upcoming releases for Metaphor ReFantazio, Sonic + Shadow Generations, and Like a Dragon titles with cosplayers and stage shows abound, the more exciting booths were taken up by smaller publishers punching above their weight to make a statement.

Level-5's booth was a dominating presence, with Professor Layton and the New World of Steam a particularly big hit with attendees. Recent investments in SNK helped the firm make its biggest ever showcase at the event, promoting the latest Fatal Fury, and Palworld's booth, while somewhat overshadowed by the news of Nintendo's lawsuit against the company just days prior, was filled with photo spots and demo booths – notably excluding the just-announced PlayStation release.

Conversations surrounding TGS were dominated by what was missing more than what was in attendance

Without much to show, why make the effort to attend the show at all? After all, companies dismissive of Gamescom and the structure, oversight, and control that prevented the post-COVID return of E3 over the freedom of self-managing their PR via livestreaming, make their presence regularly heard at TGS. Even if not attending physically, companies like Microsoft are happy to pay high prices for placement on official livestreams to showcase their work and support the show, with hundreds of other companies willing to engage in the same centralized pomp and circumstance. Why bother?

Conversations surrounding TGS were dominated by what was missing more than what was in attendance.

The PS5 Pro was an elephant in the room at the Sony booth, standing aloft on an elevated platform alongside a display of the special 30th anniversary edition of the console encased in glass. But it was basically a non-presence otherwise, playable for only a select number of roughly 100 people a day flanked by security guards and missing from every other booth despite the imminent release plans. Speaking to developers from Japan and beyond, many questioned the pricing of the device, with those in Japan concerned about where the company's status is within Japanese gaming in 2024. Others were far more enthused by the potential of the yet-to-be-revealed Switch 2.

In 2024 in Japan, Nintendo Switch is king. PlayStation console sales are dwarfed in comparison, a still-respectable six million units nothing compared to Switch's 33.94 million units as of September 29, 2024.

Cost is the factor keeping people away. Whereas a Nintendo Switch Lite can be bought for as low as ¥22,000 ($147) and a non-OLED console for just ¥11,000 more ($221), a PS5 which started sales at ¥49,980 ($335) for a digital console now costs ¥72,980 ($489). The PS5 Pro will cost ¥120,000 ($805), three times the cost of the Nintendo Switch OLED at ¥37,980 ($254).

Lineup has also been an issue for Sony in its most recent generation. With notable exceptions especially in the multiplayer space (like Apex Legends and Fortnite), domestic titles rule the roost in Japan. While Sony once had its own in-house Japanese studios that could create titles of all sizes made for the market, like Japan Studio, it's now up to third parties to fill in the gaps.

Yet when most titles – excluding SEGA's upcoming Metaphor: ReFantazio, and Final Fantasy 7 – are also available on Nintendo's plucky handheld, and even those are available on a PC market that's trebled in size in Japan between 2019 and 2023, thanks to devices like the ROG Ally, Steam Deck, and the growing interest in Microsoft Game Pass in the region.

Why shell out for a PS5 in such conditions? And what's stopping these games releasing on Nintendo's mysterious Switch successor, a device that will likely cost more than current Switch models but almost certainly less than PS5? Nintendo's dominance in the market is evident everywhere, from their own stores to convenience store collaborations, to just how many games at this show were exclusive or had their primary console showcased as Nintendo Switch, particularly in the indie sector.

You can't talk about Tokyo Game Show without discussing indies, a fixture of the show dominating half of the three additional halls in a second building commandeered for the show.

Globally, the indie scene is facing turmoil as developers note reduced investment, publishers like Merge Games have closed, while others like Humble Games or Annapurna Interactive have undergone significant turmoil. In Japan, while far from perfect, the indie scene is growing from an admittedly-lesser developed state, as new publishers enter the scene to support creators.

Yet the shift in power between truly-independent solo and doujin creators that once dominated this rogue space is reflective of the need for funding and increased scope to stand out in an ever-more-competitive market, and the greater investment entering Japan for indies.

Simply put, with funding needed just to be noticed by the gaming audience, never mind played, the bar has been raised for teams to find success. This was apparent at this year's Tokyo Game Show.

In 2022, the first in-person post-COVID rendition of Tokyo Game Show, of the official Indie 80 selection of titles chosen by the event for free exhibition, roughly 15% had publicly announced a publishing agreement by the time of exhibition at the show. This number rose to just under 50% in 2024, with publishers like Astrolabe Games, Critical Reflex, and Hyperreal having multiple representatives in the selection. This Indie 80 was also surrounded on all sides by publishers like Pheonixx, Room 6, and others.

The indie titles that remain the face of indie gaming such as Undertale, FEZ, even Celeste, would struggle to find a place in the indie market of today due to competition. Certainly globally, but even in Japan this market is shifting thanks to the growing strength of Japanese domestic indie publishing.

At what point do we submit to the reality that indies have diminished from the democratization of an industry for a bedroom coder to a rebranding of the AA games that once made home to the industry in the pre-HD era? In Japan the idea is still somewhat more prevalent through doujin gaming and publishers specializing in publishing these titles, like Play Doujin, but this is a far smaller and disconnected area of the industry.

Tokyo Game Show 2024 felt like an event in transition, one which was difficult to parse and uncertain of itself or what the future would hold this time next year for its 2025 rendition and beyond. The Japanese industry is no stranger to ongoing transformation. This was a show dominated by mobile games just ten years prior and now gave significant space to AI efforts just a year after providing the floor for NFT projects to an unenthusiastic thud.

Yet this year, it was hard not to feel the industry itself was uncertain what to say, lost at a crossroads fueled heavily by a disconnect between the domestic state of Japanese gaming mostly removed from layoffs and stabilized by the consistency of mobile and free-to-play gaming, and a global industry in turmoil. So, as I left the show on the final day, I couldn't help but return to those long-gestating questions.

This year, it was hard not to feel the industry itself was uncertain what to say, lost at a crossroads fueled heavily by a disconnect between the domestic state of Japanese gaming, and a global industry in turmoil

Why does TGS even exist? After some thought, the catchphrase used to accompany the theme of this year's event was my answer. "Trailblaze the world with gaming."

America is the default for the gaming industry. Conferences from Sony and Microsoft, and even Nintendo, are tailored to the overbearing economic influence of this market. Gamescom offers a more localized, Europe-centric image, and Tokyo Game Show serves that role for the home of gaming in Japan. With different player interests, a different market, and most notably vastly different economic realities in terms of consumer spending, a new message is necessary in order to resonate with the Japanese player base.

The global center of PlayStation is no longer Japan but the United States, and you saw this in the America-centric unveiling for the device, with a livestream held at the prohibitively-late time of midnight for the Japanese market. Then again, to make the PS5 Pro a success here at such a demanding price tag, the only choice was to reach out to the core audience in the country on their terms, and hope that such direct communication with their audience will make the difference. Hence a return to their hub, Tokyo Game Show.

It's for this reason Microsoft, understanding the greater importance for Japanese titles in the market, has spent recent years marketing its titles outside Tokyo Game Show's main entrance, making tailored livestreams for the market, and even announcing the complete Japanese localization for its Indiana Jones game at the show.

Japanese gaming is broader and bigger than ever. Are you paying attention?

It works both ways. When E3 grew in prominence in the 1990s and 2000s, the industry was far newer and lacking representation. As a trade show, it was a hub for companies to meet and present an image of strength. To share Japanese gaming with the world at a time when it can be difficult for games beyond those by the largest in the country to gain recognition on the global stage. Tokyo Game Show is not just a platform to communicate with domestic players but showcase to the world the strength, depth, and variety of Japanese gaming. It's a chance to show to the world a new face of Japanese gaming and the excitement for it.

Tokyo Game Show once again broke post-COVID attendance records with 274,739 attendees over four days, only beaten by 2018's record of 298,690 attendees, and only slightly lower than Gamescom's record 2024 attendance of 335,000 attendees. Excitement for gaming in Japan is bigger than ever, and by coming together for a show like this, not only can Japanese trade build those bridges with the global industry (Microsoft used the show to meet with many Japanese developers in their continued efforts to improve support for their platform), but make a statement.

Even if the big games were lacking, there was plenty to enjoy in this year's Tokyo Game Show from developers large and small. New names making the jump into gaming, a vibrant indie scene from established publishers like Room 6 and Shueisha Games, to new players like Toei Animation publishing its first titles using its IP with Noroi Kago, based on the genre-defining horror manga Gegege no Kitaro.

Japanese gaming is broader and bigger than ever. Are you paying attention?