Makuhari (Japan) (AFP)

As indescribable as expected, the new action video game Death Stranding caught the attention of "gamers" on Thursday at the opening of the Tokyo Game Show, which also applies to attract a family audience, with for example the opportune Mario and Sonic at the Olympics.

"We do not have a target audience, we want everyone to enjoy the games, this year we have extended the family space and we are also putting more emphasis on eSports stages and competitions", explains to AFP Yasuyuki Yamaji, the secretary general of the Cesa association, who manages the Tokyo Game Show (TGS).

From the opening of this annual fair near Chiba (suburbs east of Tokyo), fans of the controllers rushed to the screens presenting the very disturbing Death Stranding, title whose first images have bluffed even the most jaded.

"It's a really new action game and playing it is very complicated, I'm going to show only the basics here, so that you understand even a little concept," the creator of this featured title, Hideo Kojima, himself an ultra-famous in the video game industry, known for having worked brilliantly in the past at Konami, with flagship titles like Metal Gear.

Hundreds of journalists and professionals gathered in the middle of the afternoon in front of the stage mounted on the gigantic Sony PlayStation stand to watch an unprecedented presentation of this adult video game, commented by the "master" Kojima in person.

"Kojima really has a lot of admirers and we are very excited this year to promote this game of a genre that did not exist so far," said Natsumi Atarashi, spokesperson for Sony Interactive Entertainment.

Video game with aesthetic very close to the cinema - we also recognize the faces of the French actress Léa Seydoux and the Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen, among others - Death Stranding links death and life, but the first sign not the end, it is a moment of the game, according to the snippets of explanations given by Hideo Kojima, both scriptwriter, director and producer of the game with his own studio.

"If he had not opted for the world of video games, Kojima would have chosen the cinema," said Mr. Yamaji, also a former Konami group.

The worldwide release of Death Stranding is scheduled for Nov. 8 on PlayStation 4.

- eSport, 5G, but also arcade games -

At the other end of the spectrum, Mario, the inevitable and friendly mustachioed plumber, associated with the Sonic go-getter for a thematic game on the Olympic Games, with the official Tokyo 2020 logo.

The eSports will not be on the Tokyo Olympics yet next year, but is now well represented at the TGS, having arrived late, the Japanese are not as "eSports" as their Asian neighbors or Western.

"The Japanese play mainly on mobiles, very little on PC, and eSports games are mainly on PC, but we believe that it will evolve with 5G", the new generation of cellular networks, says Yamaji.

"5G is a very important technology for the gaming world. Thanks to these big technological advances, the game spreads to all the public, it is more and more part of everyday life," he adds.

A week before the release of the new version of the Nintendo Switch console, the more compact Switch Lite, 129 titles for this popular semi-fixed, semi-portable range are presented at the TGS.

Some 160 PlayStation 4 games are also at the TGS, but fans are already waiting for the next generation of the Sony console, under development.

The nostalgic should also find their account at the show, including the booth of Taito, which exhibits life-size functional replicas of tables and arcade (PacMan, Space Invaders, etc.) "which will soon be on sale in Japan for the first time. "according to a company spokesperson.

In four days, the Tokyo Game Show, welcomes each year between 260,000 and 300,000 visitors. Also come to enjoy the "cosplayers", fans of manga characters, games, cartoons that dress like their heroes and that delight the takers of images.

© 2019 AFP