Tokyo Game Show 2014 Recap

The Tokyo Game Show 2014 took place at Makuhari-Messe In Chiba, Japan from September 18th~21st. This is technically my fifth TGS since I first came to Japan in 2003, but this is the first time I have attended as a Games Researcher. In the photo above, I'm with the one and only Mr. Kaiji Inafune, character designer of the original Mega Man and creator of Mighty No. 9. He's also the man of international fame/infamy when he was reported by the media at large to have said that the Japanese video game industry was dying, but I think that by now everyone knows that his sentiment runs much more deeper and with more complexity than the media would give him credit for. I personally view Mr. Inafune as the man who is an influentual bridge between Japanese AAA studios and the rising indie culture of Japan. And it was an absolute honor to meet him at this year's TGS Indie Stream Fes.

This year, I attended the TGS with my Plain Box Interactive partner in crime, Mr. Xin Yang and his wife. It was my first time to fly with the low-cost carrier Peach Airlines, but despite the inital price which was 10,000 yen cheaper than the Shinkansen, the added fees of trains and buses basically made the price on par with the good ole bullet train, so the next time I go to Tokyo, I'm just gonna shinkansen it.

An odd occurrence on the way to our hotel in Kameido, but we happened upon a relic bomber fuselage just propped up in front of a regular apartment building. Check it out on google street view. To be honest, I've been doing some cursory net-research on this thing, but I can't figure out what's the deal with this thing.

Rame recharge in Kameido:

I was super stoked to meet Blindflug Studios, the makers of one of my favorite iOS games, First Strike.

I was pretty stoked to find this Segata Sanshiro shirt at the Sega booth. For those who are unfamiliar, Segata Sanshiro was a fictional judo master invented by Sega to sell the Sega Saturn in the late 1990s. His name is humorously close to the japanese phrase "Sega Saturn-shiro!" which means "Play the Sega Saturn (dammit)!" As in the commercials below:

Japan is not one to shy away from lurid crossovers. At the booth for the new Yakuza game, they were having an interview/photoshoot with the girls who will be in the new Yakuza game, all of whom are currently-famous Japanese porn stars.

Koei staff get a pep-talk from a giant monster at the end of the first public day.

Indie Stream Fes 2014, an industry banquet for game developers from all over the world. In my opinion, this was by far the best thing at TGS this year. Met so many great, creative developers and made a ton of new friends.

#tgs #japanesegameindustry #trip