Tokyo Game Show and more in this week's Japanese news roundup

[Gamasutra rounds up recent reports on the Japanese games industry from local news site Andriasang.com, a leading destination for English-language news on Japan's game industry.] In our latest round-up of Japanese game industry news not previously reported on Gamasutra, we look at the opening of a new Sega subsidiary, promises of a larger Tokyo Game Show, and more. Sega opens network-focused subsidiary Though Sega has closed multiple offices around the world as it focuses more of its business on digital content, the publisher has opened a new subsidiary, Sega Network, that will work on smartphone and tablet games. Sega Network will create games that will release around the world. The new studio has 211 employees and is headed by CEO Haruki Satomi, who previously led Sega of America's digital business. Japanese game industry saw gains in first half of 2012 The Japanese game industry is showing year-on-year revenue gains for the first time in two years, according to Enterbrain and Famitsu's tally of domestic sales for the first half of 2012. Hardware sales fell significantly from ¥79.8 billion ($1 billion) to ¥70.7 billion ($890.6 billion) during that period, with Nintendo's 3DS being the top-selling system after pushing 2.22 million units in the country. But software sales made up for those losses, growing by nearly 10 percent from ¥112.2 billion ($1.4 billion) to ¥122.7 billion ($1.5 billion). Total sales between the two categories reached ¥193.4 billion ($2.43 billion), a 0.7 percent increase over ¥192 billion ($2.42 billion) last year. Nintendo's Pokemon Black & White 2, released two weeks ago, became the top-selling game during the six-month period after moving 1.6 million copies. Four out of the top-selling games in Japan are DS or 3DS titles (Namco Bandai's One Piece Pirate Musou for PlayStation 3 being the exception). Meanwhile in the U.S., both console and hardware sales in 2012 have fallen considerably year-over-year at retail so far, with some predicting that annual sales will hit a six-year low. Larger scale for this year's Tokyo Game Show Tokyo Game Show organizer Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association has said that its event this September will be bigger than last year's, taking up more space at Tokyo's Makuhari Messe convention center (1,592 units of space, compared to 1,250 last year). CESA also promises that this year's event will have a bigger international presence -- out of 171 confirmed exhibitors, 68 are from outside of Japan, compared to 63 in the previous year. The four-day show has hit record attendance numbers in the past two years, though this year it will be trying to do so without Microsoft, which has opted not to attend TGS as an exhibitor. [This story was written with permission using material from Andriasang.com, a leading destination for English-language news on Japan's game industry.]