TGS Attendance Falls In 2009

The 2009 Tokyo Game Show has just wrapped, and new attendance figures revealed by Japanese trade body and event organizer CESA put this year's total at 185,030 guests. According to a breakdown from consumer weblog Kotaku, this is 52,040 attendees on the event's first two industry-only days, and 132,990 on its second two days, open to consumers. This represents, however, a fall in attendance over last year's event, which saw 194,288 attendees. In 2008, attendance over 2007 rose modestly; 2007's total was 193,040. Gamasutra was in attendance at this year's event; some highlights of our TGS coverage are as follows, with more interviews and impressions from the event on their way in the days to come: TGS: Japanese Execs Analyze Reaching Western Market At the same Tokyo Game Show event where they discussed the post-recession game biz, execs from Capcom, Konami, Namco, Square and Sony addressed Japanese companies' attempts to expand into the Western market. TGS: Epic's Mike Capps On Developing Epic-Style Epic Games president Mike Capps delivered a presentation called "The Secrets of Epic Games" at Tokyo Game Show's second day, delving into the processes that have led to the studio's success -- particularly concentrating on the Gears of War series. TGS: Sony's Hirai Talks Motion Controller, PS3 Slim In his TGS keynote, Sony's Kaz Hirai examined the future of the PlayStation platform, revealing 1 million PS3 Slim sales in 3 weeks, and showcasing the PS3 Motion Controller hardware. TGS: Kojima, Japanese Creators Explore Natal At a special Microsoft panel at Tokyo Game Show, Japanese design notables including Konami's Hideo Kojima discussed possibilities for Microsoft's Natal, suggesting blue-sky approaches to the next-gen controller.