Kutaragi Confirmed For 2006 TGS Keynote

The organizers of the Tokyo Game Show have announced that Sony's Ken Kutaragi will be delivering the pre-show keynote at this September's 2006 TGS, discussing "The Next Generation As Created By The PlayStation 3" on September 22nd at 10 am. Though relatively close to the PlayStation 3's launch, it's to be expected that Kutaragi may make significant announcements about Sony-related plans and products as part of his keynote. The TGS business day has historically been an important platform - last year's keynotes saw Nintendo's Satoru Iwata reveal the Wii controller for the first time. In addition, Square Enix's Yoichi Wada, also chairman of show organizers and Japanese trade organization CESA, has taken the second major speaking spot for TGS's pre-show day. He will be talking about "The Possibilities And Hurdles Of The Game Industry", in a speech to be given at 11.15 am on that same day, and Gamasutra will be reporting on both keynotes as part of our in-depth Tokyo Game Show coverage. The afternoon also sees a number of other Japanese speakers from the MMO and mobile arenas, and also showcases the CEDEC Premium event in association with the IGDA, headlined by EA's Neil Young last year. This year's CEDEC Premium sees Epic Games discussing Unreal Engine 3 at the event, with speeches by Epic's Vice President Jay Wilbur and CEO Mike Capps during the afternoon of that same day. The previously announced 2006 TGS event is the 10th anniversary of the key Japanese gathering, and the theme is ' New Excitement. New Sensations. A New Generation.', which is "...meant to reflect the changing and converging landscape, one in which consumer consoles, online games, mobile games and next-gen are all supported." The show will feature an all-time high 134 companies showing a total of 1,702 individual products, including a strong likelihood of all three next-gen consoles in playable form.