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TGS 2023: Shaun’s Final Thoughts on the Show

Posted on by Shaun Musgrave

Well, that’s another Tokyo Game Show in the books. The 2023 show was my ninth time attending the Tokyo Game Show, and my eighth covering it for TouchArcade. I’m starting to feel the years, my friends. Luckily, my son has been attending the show with me for the last few years as TouchArcade’s stalwart cameraman. Having him with me keeps me from slacking off too much, no matter how tired I might get. Anyway, as I usually do, I’m finishing off my coverage for this year with some of my general thoughts on the show and what attending it was like.

I often say there are only two types of weather for Tokyo Game Show: very very hot, or very very typhoon. This year, it seemed like the weather couldn’t decide. It was quite hot, and it also rained a bit throughout the day I was there. The trains were also running late, which meant that for the first time ever in my history of covering the Tokyo Game Show, I wasn’t there for the opening. Well, I suppose things happen. We didn’t come in too late, at least. On-time enough to score some limited items at the merch area for a certain pal, which was the important thing. Upon arriving at Makuhari Messe, the massive venue that Tokyo Game Show uses each year, it was easy to see things had changed a lot from the previous year.

Japan took a little bit longer to get back to normal after the height of the COVID pandemic when compared to most Western countries. As a result, last year’s Tokyo Game Show was a lot smaller than usual. It didn’t fill out the full space of Makuhari Messe, not by a long shot. The indie area was small and had a lot of spaces set aside with signs apologizing that the developer couldn’t end up attending. The crowds were a lot sparser, and you could actually line up for a big game and not spend half the day in the queue. Everyone was masked up, and there was a bottle of sanitizer on just about every flat surface around the show.

This year? For better or worse, it was business as usual. Makuhari Messe was stuffed to the bursting point, with some of the food vendors forced to set up outside because there just wasn’t much room left in the main halls. There were tons of people around, and it was easy to see that the lifting of travel restrictions was part of the rejuvenation of the crowds. The Tokyo Game Show was in rough shape the first time I came back in 2009, and it’s amazing to see just how vibrant it is nowadays.

As for the games themselves? It was interesting to see mobile gaming making a bit of a comeback with the big exhibitors. In recent years I’ve found more of interest in the indie area than the among the big companies, but this year it was the opposite. Not many mobile games at all in the indie area, but there was quite a lot to see in the main areas. All in all, it felt like there was a really good balance of the different gaming markets at the show. Lots of console games, lots of computer games, and lots of mobile games. The mix is a bit different every year, and it’s rare to see things as balanced as they were this year.

It’s become a bit of a running joke each year that when I finish the show I swear up and down that it will be my last. I am getting older, I’m getting more exhausted more quickly, and I don’t think it’s any secret to regular readers that my health has been in a weird place for a while. There will come a day when I can’t handle covering the Tokyo Game Show, and I know it. But I’ve decided that as long as I can cover it, I will. So I will say with some certainty, and hopefully this isn’t a flag of some kind, that I will be at the 2024 Tokyo Game Show. I just knocked on so much wood. Covering this show each September has become part of my routine for the year, and as much as I pay the price for going, I think I should like to keep it up.

In summary, the 2023 Tokyo Game Show was a stellar return to form after a few unusual years. There were a lot of great games to see, lots of interesting sights to take in, and lots of ways to blow your cash and time if you were looking to. Covering it was a lot of work, but it was immensely satisfying to be doing it again for all of you. I wonder what we’ll see at next year’s show? I’ll start marking the days on the calendar, friends.
 

Check out all of our coverage from this year’s Tokyo Game Show: