Looking ahead to the Tokyo Games Show 2009

The Tokyo Games Show (TGS) established itself almost immediately as the premier games expo, based pretty much on sheer number of attendees.

Rather astutely, it distanced itself from E3 by allowing the public to attend during the last two days of the event, and, being based in the world’s gaming (and cosplaying) capital, it’s been a throng-on showcase that has grown year on year.

The TGS 2009 is slated to kick off on September 24th, until the 27th, so we thought we’d take a look ahead as to what we can expect - given that GamesCom might just have stolen the expo’s thunder and usurped its throne as the most attended game trade event in the world.

In an effort to reignite waning Japanese enthusiasm for hardware (in particular), organiser Computer Entertainment Supplier’s Association (CESA) has chosen the wonderfully Japanglish theme, “Game, it’s so energetic!”.

It intends to cheer the world up during financial turbulence by showcasing the new world of free thoughts and ideas, revolutionary stories, and innovative expressions and creativity in the games industry.

Of particular interest to pocket gamers this year is the introduction of a brand new area of the TGS, Advanced Mobile & PC.

This new area doesn’t immediately appear to be packed out with hot new mobile (or, moreover, iPhone and smartphone) game developers, presumably limited in their ability to attend given that a two metre square booth runs up £1200 per day (actually not too bad for such a high profile event, but still a massive bite from the apple of an indie iPhone developer).

The Japanese games industry retainers are all going to be in attendance, and several have begun to talk about which of their new games will make it to the TGS show floor. As much as the organisers are clearly keen to make this a global event, with developers from across the world all being made welcome in their own areas of the show, there’s a mightily strong Japanese theme to the majority of the titles on show.

Techmo is gearing up to deliver Undead Knights to PSP and Again Eye of Providence to the DS, which are both admittedly global in their appeal, though it’s also prepared another addition to its female-targeted adventure series Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 3 Unmei no Labyrinth Aisou-ban (meaning something about Within the Expanse of a Distant Time).

These anime-based adventure games don’t tend to leave their native shores, though local fans of the popular animated TV show will undoubtedly be excited about a new episode on their PSPs.

Although we’re miles behind with the Professor Layton DS series, it’s always great to hear about the puzzle-based delights we might see in time for Christmas 2015, and Level 5 is to show off the latest instalment at TGS, Professor Layton and the Flute of Malevolent Destiny, alongside two other DS titles (Inazuma Eleven 2 Fire/Blizard and Ni no Kuni) and Danbol Senki (The Little Battlers) on PSP. Again, very much aimed at the native audience, I think.

Sega is promising a PSP-based sequel to its awesome PS3 title, Valkyria Chronicles 2, which we can only hope isn’t another publishing malfunction. At last year’s E3, Sony got all our hopes up that the original game was coming to the PSP - a rumour that turned out to be a mistake. Sega presumably noted the uproar, and immediately got to work on this portable-only sequel.

Acquire is also returning to a popular console franchise and adapting it to the handheld arena in the shape of Way of the Samurai 2 Portable. The original PS2 game was adapted to the PSP, but never really found its way out of Japan. Hopefully Sega will manage to get this one out to a worldwide audience.

Few of these games sound as if they’re going to be digital downloads, however. The DS ones are almost certainly going to be retail cartridges, and it would seem the PSP games aren’t going to specifically cater for Sony's new digital outlook on life (though could see a dual release).

But Japan-based Q Games will be launching its PSP adaptation of PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe as a download, given that the originals have fared so well through the PlayStation Network.

Traditionally, these expos are more about dedicated consoles, and the talk of gaming town at the minute is undeniably the PSP - or, more accurately, PSP Minis.

But the current line up of TGS games (albeit a small list so far) doesn’t really seem to embrace the new world of digital distribution. No real iPhone announcements, and the PSP and DS seem to be focusing more on retail games.

Of course, one glaring omission from the Tokyo Games Show every year is Nintendo, which, despite sending president Satoru Iwata to give the keynote speech the other year, doesn’t attend.

After the storm Sony caused at GamesCom, it’s understandable that the electronics giant is struggling for new announcements to make, but Nintendo seems to have dissolved into the shadows.

Could it be that the DSi and DSiWare aren’t performing in the same league as the competition? That’s the conclusion most gamers will be likely to draw when aggressive challenges from Apple and Sony go unanswered. And, I might add, challenges from Microsoft.

The American megagiant is going to the TGS even if Nintendo isn’t, though it’s keeping quiet about its intentions so far. Much of its focus will be on pushing the Xbox 360 into the notoriously resistant Japanese market, but it’ll be interesting to see whether Bill’s boys take to opportunity to test the Zune HD waters with the Japanese consumer.

All in all, it seems as though Sony will be dominating, with a large number of PSP games on show and Kaz Hirai giving the keynote speech only days from the official launch of the PSPgo. With some careful positioning of its new range of digital products, the Tokyo Games Show could easily turn into one big PSPgo launch event.

Stay tuned and we’ll let you know toward the end of September.