This year's Tokyo Game Show was supposed to be bigger, but that doesn't mean the industry event was better. It was expanded from three days (one press, two public days) to four days (two press, two public) as Sony, Microsoft and third-party video game publishers played host at this year's Tokyo Game Show (Sept. 20-23) at Chiba's Makuhari Messe. One noticeable absentee? Nintendo. The Kyoto-based creator of popular series like "Super Mario Bros." and "The Legend of Zelda" routinely sits TGS out and instead holds its own Nintendo event during the year.
The first public day of the show saw 64,795 attendees compared to 84,823 attendees. By the second day, visitors were filing out hours before the doors closed, making it unlikely that this year's TGS will pull in 192,411 visitors. Sure, last year brought Japan's first hands-on experience with the PS3, which certainly helps to explain the discrepancy. "I thought it was going to be more out of control, like you couldn't move," says 33 year-old attendee Takashi Fujigaki. The floor at TGS 2006 was so crowded that it can only be described like attending the Super Bowl, a Beatles concert and the circus — at the same time.
Since Sony dominated the past two console generations, Nintendo wasn't missed at the earlier shows really. Now, with the Nintendo's Wii and DS ruling home console and hand-held gaming sales, its absence was profoundly apparent. Video game software sales charts are wall-to-wall DS and Wii games with the occasional PSP and PS3 cameos. "The video game industry is in a very healthy state thanks to the success of Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii, which makes Nintendo's continued reluctance to partake in TGS that much more disappointing," says Ryan Payton, assistant producer of Konami. "The press wants to cover the industry, gamers want to play and celebrate games at the Makuhari Messe, but the industry's biggest player continues to ignore it. It's tragic."