Every year I look forward to going to the Tokyo Game Show. It’s geared around the public and is meant to be about games, but the event is now becoming less relevant in a mostly digital age.
Normally, I would have a fun write-up on all the new games and the general shift back towards console gaming. While the latter is still true, with mobile games taking even more of a back seat at the event, the amount of new games to cover has definitely reduced.
This is not because there are fewer games to cover, far from it. In fact, we have more games developed in Japan than ever before. No, the issue now is that everyone has already announced their games online, leaving nothing of note left for the Tokyo Game Show.
In previous years, game announcements would be held back for the Tokyo Game Show. So you would have an enormous number of new games to cover and also play at the event itself.
With the advent of online events and the acceleration of that due to COVID, most games have either been already announced or even released before the Tokyo Game Show even started.
This shift away from physical events for gaming announcements has sadly taken its toll on the Tokyo Game Show. With much of the floor space now dedicated to more business oriented booths and game creation courses for up and coming developers.
All of this is good and necessary, but it’s not something that the Tokyo Game Show openly held host to, instead with the focus being on new games for the public to play.
It also didn’t help that Sony, and its massive PlayStation booth, was absent this year as well.
While I doubt the Tokyo Game Show will shutter its doors anytime soon, it definitely needs to re-examine its purpose and focus in a far more digitally savvy age.
One of the biggest historical advantages of the event was its unique public focus. That advantage is seemingly gone now, as the public are already up to speed on everything that’s happening online. I just hope that the Tokyo Game Show can pivot and find its purpose again.
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