For gamers, this weekend will feel like Christmas. Tokyo Game Show (TGS), Japan's biggest gaming event, began Thursday at Chiba's Makuhari Messe convention center and will continue through Sept. 18 (on Saturday and Sunday it will be open to the public). More than 140 exhibitors are on hand, off-site parties have already begun to go late into the night and — most importantly — there are tons of new video games.
Not bad for a show that seemed impossible in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11. As the government pushed the summer of setsuden (energy conservation), an energy drain like TGS seemed improbable. Organizers responded to the crisis by implementing measures to reduce the total electricity consumption of the event by 25 percent: turning off escalators, using LED light bulbs and limiting power for exhibition booths.
Energy conservation wasn't the only thing in the minds of organizers: There was a concern that the disaster had derailed the country's game industry, too.