Sony’s Tokyo Game Show Conference 2016 — Trouble in Tokyo

With the arrival of this year’s Tokyo Game Show came another accompanying conference from Sony. As always, these focus on showing upcoming and brand new titles from Japanese developers, including Sony’s internal teams. But they’re also worth watching to measure the console market’s viability in Japan. It’s no secret that the country’s dedicated gaming market has undergone serious changes in how many games are made and who they’re aimed towards, thanks to drastically changing market trends and preferences. Here, we’d see how they’d transformed within the last year, and could change in the near future.

Now that the conference has long ended, things aren’t looking up. Many previously announced games were previewed and dated, while a handful of new games were revealed. That sounds typical on the surface, sure, until you realize the amount of them was considerably fewer than the number on display in previous years. Those worrying signs about the Japanese market have only increased in size lately, and this conference was essentially a gigantic “Warning” sign held up by anime characters. Given the reaction to the conference online, be glad if you didn’t stay up to watch it. I know I am.

Granted, they did open with a boss rap video, which featured a bunch of upcoming highly-anticipated games. They should do this for every conference going forward — no, seriously.

Despite Japan’s dreary market, there were still plenty of good-looking games on display for anyone interested in Japanese-developed titles. Final Fantasy XV will (presumably) release on November 29th, and given the franchise’s status it’s unsurprisingly getting its own PS4 bundle. It will include a specially-designed PS4 with a 1TB hard drive, the game, and a digital copy of Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV. That PS4, by the way, is a slim, despite how the game will perform better on a Pro. The bundle will also release in America and Europe on the same day, though they’ll be exclusive to Gamestop for the former.

Kingdom Hearts II.8: Final Chapter Prologue was also shown, though it’s now releasing on January 12 in Japan and the 24th in western territories, despite previously being confirmed for December. They don’t want to release it too close to FFXV following its delay, but it’s now releasing on the same day as Yakuza 0 and Resident Evil 7 in the west. Square Enix will also release NieR: Automata on February 23rd, though they’ve yet to give a western date.

Sony’s New Hot Shots Golf will release sometime next summer in Japan, so anyone who’s been anticipating this since it was announced at Tokyo Game Show 2014 has to wait even longer. A slightly repurposed version of The Last Guardian’s E3 2016 trailer was also shown, though note that it was recently delayed (again) to December 6. Interestingly, they opted not to dedicate time to their other Japanese titles like Gravity Rush 2 and Gran Turismo Sport, outside the previously linked rap. Note that the latter title was also delayed recently.

As for other previously-announced PS4 games shown: Nioh won’t make its 2016 timeframe as originally planned, but will release on February 9th worldwide. The PlatinumGames-developed Granblue Fantasy Project Re:Link, previously announced at CyGames’ conference late last month without a platform, is officially coming to PS4. However, it won’t arrive until sometime in 2018. PlayStation VR support is also being considered.

Other VR games shown were the ever-popular Summer Lesson, which will release on October 13th in Japan. Newly announced was V! No Heroes Allowed! R!, which is a VR-exclusive (like you couldn’t tell from the name) installment in the Badman/No Heroes Allowed series. If you’re not sold on PSVR, Japanese support probably won’t sell you on it, unless it has a glut of otaku games. You know what kind I’m talking about.

Kojima Productions’ own Hideo Kojima was present to talk about Death Stranding, previously announced at E3, though it’s still far from being in a showable state. The game will be an open world action game with online elements, perhaps taking cues from Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Expect a slow info drip for this over the next few years before we finally see it.

Since this was a Japanese conference, Vita was also focused on. New Danganronpa V3 for PS4 and Vita emerged from its shadow, with Spike Chunsoft confirming a January 2017 timeframe, delaying it from its original late 2016 date. As promised, Square Enix’s SaGa: Scarlet Grace also resurfaced, which was dated for December 15th. It looks great despite its low budget, though it’s still surprisingly a Vita-exclusive — the only such title at the conference, at that. Also, the Vita hardware will come in Silver and Metallic Red flavors in Japan starting on December 1st.

As for new titles: D3 Publisher confirmed Earth Defense Force 5 for PS4, though it was leaked by the official Tokyo Game Show app last week. It will release sometime next year. Bandai Namco also confirmed a new Mobile Suit Gundam VS game for PS4, though few details about it were given. This could finally be the console installment that gets localized, after Gundam Extreme VS-Force came over for Vita.

In an unlikely announcement: Square Enix announced Itadaki Street: Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy 30th Anniversary for PS4 and Vita for a 2017 release. Those platforms aren’t the kind anyone expected them to release a Monopoly-like board game for nowadays, but you won’t see many complaints. Additionally, Koei Tecmo announced Musou Stars, a Warriors game that will include characters from a wide variety of their franchises, including Dynasty and Samurai Warriors, Ninja Gaiden, Atelier, and more. In other words, it’s Warriors Orochi on a grander scale.

It goes without saying that this was far from the best showing from Sony, especially when compared to previous Tokyo Game Show conferences. I made a post critical of their recent actions on Monday, but hoped to use this post as an opportunity to show the positive material they can present. Sure, this post is mostly positive, as they showed plenty of great games, there wasn’t much that couldn’t have been promoted outside a conference. But I’m not blaming Sony for this; it says less about their presentation abilities and more about how dire things are for Japan’s console market. Welcome to the new normal.

If you want to watch the conference, for some reason: The English-translated version is here, while the raw Japanese version is here.