A sneak peek at the Far and Advanced East
TGS is about to start!
What’s TGS? The Tokyo Game Show of course, the most important business and public show about the ever-growing gaming industry held in Japan, from 21 to 24 September this year.
The Tokyo Game Show was born in the far 1996, fully embracing the success of PlayStation, Saturn and Nintendo 64. Despite the years and the renovation of japan industry, TGS confirms to be the most important videogaming trade show in the oriental market. The first editions, from 1996 to 2002, were so dense of appointments that the exhibitions were held twice a year: one in spring and the other in autumn.
Hundreds of new announcements departed from his conferences, fuel of an exponentially growing induistry with the imperative of showing the world his strenght, especially to the business world, from which big investors come.
Then, since 2003, the formula changed and started the annual cycle, positioning the show during the autumn, choice still maintained today.
At the beginning the official Tokyo Game Show venue was the Tokyo Big Sight, abandoned in 2002 prefering the modern complex Makuhari Messe of Chiba, still used today. In its first years of existence, the Tokyo Game Show was a real lighthouse for the entire industry, including the western industry. Gamers were anxiously waiting for the reports from the magazines to learn about the new products they would have played in the months and years ahead. It was in fact from Japan that the most prominent actors came: SEGA, Nintendo and Sony in particular, with the first one being still active on the hardware market and the third moving its first steps to a shaky market since the introduction of new technologies, giving the world a new concept of video games. It was always there where publishers such as Konami, Tecmo, Square, Namco and many others produced the finest and most technically advanced titles people might wish. From the Tokyo Game Show halls, a big slice of the whole videogame industry history has passed.+
The Makuhari Messe
The Makuhari Messe complex in Chiba has been hosting the Tokyo Game Show for years since 2002. Inaugurated on 9 October 1989, it is a large conference center specializing in the organization of events related to the technology industry, which also embraces the video game one. The name has a dual nature: Makuhari is the area of Chiba where the complex rises, while Messe is a German word that simply means "fair".
The property has been renovated several times over the years and it is designed like a giant gallery divided into nine pavilions, which occupy a total of 75,000 square meters. Other events hosted by the Makuhari Messe include the Tokyo Auto Salon in January and the Tokyo Motor Show in October. In addition to the main building, around the Makuhari Messe there are other connected structures where events that have not found room in the main halls are held, in which every exhibition stand can find his space to display new products and services.
