my course

A review on Tokyo Game Show 2005

There are three main exhibitions or conventions in the video gaming world each year; America’s E3, Europe’s Consumer Entertainment Software Association Awards (CESA), and Japan’s Tokyo Game Show (TGS). TGS will likely become the largest video game convention in the world due to the unpopularity of CESA awards and of the downscaling of E3. Unlike E3, the Tokyo Game Show allows the general public viewing in the final two days. As a result, it has much higher attendance than E3.

The first Tokyo Game Show was held in 1996. It used to be held twice a year, once in the spring and once in the autumn, but this was discontinued in 2002, when the show was held only in the autumn. Since 2002 TGS have only hosted in September of the year, given that it’s near Christmas, most of the manufacturers reveal their surprises in this exhibition. The reason behind reviewing about 2005 but not the one last year is because 2005 is a more revolutionary in many ways.



The Exhibitor in TGS 2005 is the following:

ACQUIRE CORPORATION
Media Works Inc.
AKELLA
Microsoft Co. Ltd.
ASK Corporation
MORI TOYS CO. LTD.
ATARI JAPAN
NAMCO LIMITED
ATI TECHNOLOGIES(JAPAN) INC.
NTT DoCoMo, Inc.
ATLUS CO., LTD.
NUBYTECH
Bandai Co., Ltd.
RAZER GROUP
BigWorld / Solid Networks Inc. / Trymedia Systems Inc.
RHOCEO CO., LTD.
BROCCOLI CO., LTD.
SANWA SUPPLY INC.
CAPCOM CO., LTD.
Scansoft, Inc.
CLIMAX Inc.
SEGA CORPORATION
Core Colours, Inc.
Sega Logistics Service Co., Ltd.
CREEK & RIVER Co., Ltd.
Seoul City Pavilion　 BinaryCraft Corporation　 CFN Co.,Ltd.　 COONG Entertainment Inc.　 DreamSuare Co.,Ltd.　 E3NET CO.,Ltd.　 KNetP Co.,Ltd.　 Mirinae Entertainment Inc.　 Mowelsoft Inc.　 Web EnG Korea Co.,Ltd.
Crest Co., Ltd.
D3 PUBLISHER Inc.
DISC GO TECHNOLOGIES
eMagin Corporation
ENTERBRAIN, INC.
ESEL INTERNATIONAL COMPANY LIMITED
Excite Japan Co., Ltd.
FUJIWORK CO., LTD.
SNK PLAYMORE CORPORATION
GAME INFINITY ～G★
Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.
(game)land
SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD.
GDEX
TAITO CORPORATION
GENKI Co., Ltd.
TAIWAN Game Pavilion EASYFUN ENTERTAINMENT CORP. SOFTSTAR ENTERTAINMENT INC. Taiwan Trade Centre ZEROPLUS TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
GEO-BB Incorporated
GRAVITY Co., Ltd.
GungHo Online Entertainment, Inc.
HAMSTER Corporation
TECMO, LTD.
HAVOK
TOMY Company, Ltd.
HOLON, Inc.
TOPPLAYER INC.
INTERNET RADIO ONSEN
UBISOFT
KDDI CORPORATION
UKR GAME EXPORT
KOEI CO., Ltd.
Winble Japan, Inc.
KONAMI CORPORATION
XTREME LTD
ABILIT Co., Ltd.
KOTOBUKI SOLUTION CO., LTD.
Ambition, Ltd
NOKIA JAPAN CO., LTD.
Aruze Corp.
Quattro Media Corporation
BTD STUDIO CO., LTD.
Spicysoft Corporation
DAITO GIKEN, INC.
SEALZ, Inc.
DP CORPORATION
TAKARA Mobile Entertainment Co., Ltd.
FromSoftware, Inc.
TOMEN TELECOM CORPORATION
GignoSystem Japan, Inc.
TRY AND LINK
G-mode Co., Ltd.
UNISHENG
Interactive Brains Co., LTD.
WorkJam Co., Ltd.
ATLUS CO., LTD.
DENGEKI GAMECUBE
Bandai Co., Ltd.
KONAMI CORPORATION
CAPCOM CO., LTD.
SEGA CORPORATION
D3 PUBLISHER Inc.

ACT Information & Business College
Niigata Computer College
Aso Business Computer College
Niigata High Technology College
Clark Akihabara IT Campus
NIPPON ENGINEERING COLLEGE
DENGEKI SCHOOL MAGAZINE
SOGOGAKUEN HUMAN ACADEMY
Digital Entertainment Academy Co., Ltd.
TOKYO COMMUNICATION ART
DIGITAL HOLLYWOOD / DIGITAL HOLLYWOOD UNIVERSITY
TOKYO KOGAKUIN COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY
Higashi-Nihon Design & Computer College
TOKYO NET WAVE COLLEGE
International Art & Design College
Tokyo Technical College
JAPAN ELECTRONICS COLLEGE
Trident College of Information Technology
Kanagawa Computer Culture College
World Institute of Zeal artists for digital and technology
Kobe Institute of Computing / Kobe College of Computing
YAG The Institute of Yoyogi Animation
NAGOYA KOUGAKUIN COLLEGE

Alchemist
KID corp.
BROCCOLI CO., LTD.
KONAMI CORPORATION
CAPCOM CO., LTD.
Nikkei Business Publications, Inc.
COSPA inc.
SOFTBANK Publishing Inc.
HORI CO., LTD.
SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD.
IDEA FACTORY Co., Ltd.
TECMO, LTD.
Multiterm Co., Ltd.
VMC
■Exhibit only Business Day
AUSTRALIA QUEENSLAND GOVERNMENT TOKYO OFFICE
Metrowerks Co., Ltd.
CRI Middleware Co., LTD.
Nihon Cornet Technology K.K.
ENZYME TESTING LABS
SANTOKU CORPORATION
SANDISK CORPORATION


Nintendo broke their tradition of not participating in the TGS in 2005, to make known their plan for their next generation console. This is also where the second console (the first console wars is well known as Sony PS2 versus Microsoft Xbox versus Nintendo Gamecube) wars began.

The show was opened with two keynote speeches on September 16. The first was given by Robert J. Bach, senior Vice President for the Home and Entertainment Division and chief Xbox officer at Microsoft.

Microsoft dominated the headlines with the announcement of the launch date and price of Xbox 360, along with a few playable demos such as Ninety-Nine Nights, Call Of Duty 2 and Dead Rising and in addition the release of trailer of Dead or Alive 4, Tokyo Highway Battle, Biozard 5 etc. Ninety-Nine Nights is especially impressive, it shows the raw power and potential of the Xbox 360; even with more than 100 people hacking and slashing on the screen together with high detail lighting and special effects, the Xbox 360 show no signs of frame skipping or lagging due to its high processor speed and large memory.

Microsoft also revealed their very own big titles for late 2006 and early 2007; Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon, both by the man who created Final Fantasy, Hironobu Sakaguchi. Lost Odyssey uses the new Unreal 3 engine to render its impressive graphics; it represented the characters designed by Inoue Takehiko (the creator of Slam Dunk, Real and Vagabond) in the finest fashion. It also showed the potential of the Unreal engine in the Japanese gaming industry.

Compared to the lighting quick release of Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Sony have a little install for its fans and third party developers taking part in TGS 2005. Although there were hints PS3 will have a playable demo, but not in this case, instead they had a trailer of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Biozard 5, Devil May Cry 4 and Armored Core 4. The MGS4 demo was also demonstrated by Hideo Kojima on the Konami stage, running in real-time on an actual PS3 dev-kit (basically a computer with the same processing speed and capacity of the PS3). While there are still some big titles announced for the PS2, including Rouge Galaxy and Xenosaga - Episode 3, many believed Sony have lost ground to Microsoft in the console war, not to mention the revolutionary plan of the Nintendo Wii (it was still called “Revolution” at that time, but since the official name is released, I will call it by the official name). However many manufactures’ main title are going to be release on the PS2, therefore PS2 will likely to continue dominate the market for least another year or two.



The playable demo (from the left) of Virtua Fighter 5, Virtua Tennis.


Nintendo revealed their new “remote” controller for the first time in TGS 2005 along with a demonstration video in the opening press conference; even though lots of people still speculate about the Wii’s specification as with the Xbox 360 and the PS3, where as Nintendo have kept it a secret. Even if the best products may not be the most successful, Nintendo have done a good job of keep the press excited with just one controller. This strategy is very similar to what Apple’s Steve Jobs have done with ipod and ipod shuffle, which proved to be very successful. Plenty of people believed this move will give Nintendo’s Wii the upper hand over its competitors.

SEGA have returned from near bankruptcy to be one of the most successful game producers, with the confirmed release of Phantasy Star Universe, SEGA Rally 2006, SONIC RUSH etc. and they also have Takenobu Mitsuyoshi (the composer of many games including Shenume) singing in a special event on the second day furthermore to celebrate the creator of Sonic the Hedgehog and Phantasy Star, a popular figure in SONIC TEAM, Yuji Naka’s birthday. At one point he even invaded the stage with a mask on, overall it had been an enjoyable exhibition for SEGA.



Since Bandai and Namco combined, they enter the TGS 2005 together as Bandai Namco. Since the two companies have become one, they produce double the amount of games than everyone else. Namco brought out their main title Xenosaga ~Episode 3, since they changed the character designer in Xenosaga ~Episode 2, a lot of people complained, therefore they reverted the character designer back to the first Xenosaga, hoping to win back some fans. They additionally confirmed that Xenosaga 1 & 2 will be released on the Nintendo DS. While Bandai still stick with their one and only trick: Gundam, Gundam and more Gundam, so games wise they have nothing fresh. But they hosted an event which was quite interesting, involving Tohru Furuya, an extremely famous voice actor, who voiced various characters including Amuro Ray of original Gundam, Pegasus Seiya of Saint Seiya and Mamoru Chiba/Tuxedo Kamen of Sailor Moon. Naomi Shindoh, the voice actress of Cagalli Yula Athha of Gundam SEED in a match on the new Mobile Suit Gundam Zaft vs. Federation game, through Naomi Shindoh ended victorious, scores of people joked that his reaction was too quick for the Gundam to handle (one many famous lines by Amuro Ray in the original Gundam series).

In conclusion, 2005 has been an important year for the video game industry, which marks the beginning of the next console war between PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii. Although there is still a lot to write about but due to the lack of space I have to stop here. The TGS has done a very good job of maintaining the slowly shrinking video game industry; combined with excellent content and atmosphere, even though several people might complain about the lack of advertisement for future releases. As E3 events become less common, TGS with play an even more important role in the future, lets hope by means of creativity and new ideas, to restore the gaming industry to its former glory!



Official site: http://tgs.cesa.or.jp/2005/english/index.html

Special thanks to:

Ign: http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/650/650856p1.html
Gamespy: http://uk.gamespy.com/articles/649/649753p1.html