Tokyo (AFP)
Like many other shows around the world, the Tokyo Game Show, Japan's video game high mass, is being held online only this year due to the pandemic.
But this constraint could well be beneficial to him.
The event, which takes place from Wednesday to Sunday, is an undeniable popular success, attracting in recent years more than 250,000 visitors over four days.
Its influence in the global video game industry is waning, however.
"The TGS has been on a downward slope for 10 to 15 years," said analyst Serkan Toto, of the Kantan Games firm in Tokyo, interviewed by AFP.
This is mainly due to the loss of hegemony of Japanese games during this period, he said.
Launched in 1996 and unavoidable in the early 2000s, the TGS has since suffered competition from the E3 show in Los Angeles - which was however canceled this year - and from the Gamescom in Cologne (western Germany), which was held online a few weeks ago.
The German show is leading the way in terms of number of visitors, and game publishers are now using it to unveil their novelties to the general public.
“It seems that every year there are more visitors and fewer announcements” at TGS, also notes Brian Ashcraft, journalist for the specialist site Kotaku, who lives in Japan and has been covering the show for more than 15 years.
Less relevant to foreign visitors, the TGS has curled up on the Japanese market in recent years.
"It has become increasingly clear that the TGS is looking inward rather than internationally," according to Mr. Toto.
- Videos in English, Chinese -
Organized shortly before the Christmas holidays, a period when the video game industry generally achieves the bulk of its sales, "the TGS allows visitors to try" the titles announced in other shows, Yasuyuki Yamaji told AFP, the general secretary of the Cesa association, which manages the Tokyo Game Show.
"People also come for conviviality, to watch esports competitions [network tournaments], to practice cosplay [disguise as heroes from video games or cartoons], or to have a good time with the family," adds he does.
Deprived of these extras this year, the show hopes to take advantage of its online migration to conquer a larger audience, when "70% to 80% of visitors usually come from Tokyo and its suburbs," according to Mr. Yamaji.
More than half of the exhibitors will be foreign this year, he also underlines, according to him a sign of a "TGS more global" than usual.
The show has set a schedule that runs until late at night on Japanese time, which should allow foreign audiences to follow it better.
Some game publishers will also advertise in English and Chinese, in addition to Japanese.
This is the case of Square Enix, the originator of the Final Fantasy franchise, Capcom (Street Fighter, Resident Evil) or Sega Atlus (Persona).
The language barrier was "a problem" for the TGS, recalls Serkan Toto, with almost all information broadcast in Japanese.
- "A good barometer" -
The TGS also suffers from being almost systematically neglected by the giant Nintendo, which dominates the Japanese market.
His compatriot Sony has already revealed online last week the details of his PlayStation 5, which will be launched in November.
The American giant Microsoft has for its part already announced that it will not speak at the TGS about its new Xbox Series consoles, also scheduled for November.
To make the most of the show's digital containment, its organizers hope to learn lessons for the future from this experience.
If the pandemic is brought under control next year, "we would like to offer a hybrid physical event, which would retain the advantages of online TGS, such as remote presentations," says Yamaji.
For Brian Ashcraft, the 2021 edition "will be interesting" because the organizers will have understood what is important: "What can we show online? What can we do in person? This year will be a good barometer".
© 2020 AFP