KNOWLEDGE TGS 2022

Japan’s long-running expo returns with a renewed, outward-facing urgency

While publishers are out in force, public attendance at TGS is down significantly from its previous in-person outing in 2019, and less than half of its 2018 peak

After a two-year, pandemic-induced hiatus, the 2022 Tokyo Game Show’s tagline – ‘Nothing stops gaming’ – is as debatable as it is defiant. It reflects, however, a broader eagerness in Japan to return, finally, to the way things were. The country has been slower than most to ease its lockdown policies. Everyone is still expected to wear a mask, even outdoors, and the country remains closed to tourism, while demanding business visitors complete a quest of Miyazaki-esque opaqueness to unlock a travel visa. This conservatism is proving increasingly costly: the yen is currently at a 24-year low against the US dollar, and hundreds of businesses that rely on foreign visitors, including many of Tokyo’s last bastion of arcades, have been forced to close during the past 24 months. Against this backdrop, with over 138,000 visitors making the pilgrimage to Makuhari Messe’s halls, this year’s TGS finds itself in the improbable position of seeming, for the first time in a while, something approaching notable.

It’s certainly a more international affair than in previous years. Of the 600-odd companies represented at the event, only a little more than half are Japanese. Facebook – sorry, Meta – is ubiquitous, thanks to panoramic billboards around the exhibition centre that promote the next iteration of its virtual reality headset, Meta Quest 2; in Japan at least, the VR dream remains strong. Among Us characters painted on the sides of buses run loops around the Makuhari Messe’s hangar-like halls. Once inside, it is impossible to miss Valve’s stand, complete with a gigantic Steam Deck dangling from the rafters, and THQ Nordic’s vast booth built around a full-size wrestling ring. For Valve, the appeal is obvious. In Japan, Nintendo’s Switch makes up 85 per cent of all console sales; if the Bellevue company can enjoy a fraction of that success with its handheld (and at more than double the Switch’s cost), it will be considered a major success in a market that has been historically cool on PC gaming.