Tokyo Game Show 2020 Online (24th September - 27th September)

[Julius]

This year TGS is going digital, but that hasn't stopped it from being packed with 204 Japanese companies, and 198 from overseas. The event will be running from 24th September - 27th September, with some less than ideal show times for its potential western audience, but with the schedule now out, it looks to be a very promising and exciting event to look ahead to! 

The Schedule

Below I've listed what I think are going to be the events with probably the most eyes on them during the show, purely from a "let's see some games" perspective. This is all subject to change, and I wouldn't be surprised if more companies are added to the list, and I'll be sure to update this if that is the case. A full listing of the events as of 1st September can be found here. 

Times listed below are in British Summer Time and Japanese Standard Time. 

24th September

Xbox Tokyo Game Show Showcase | 13:00 - 13:50 BST / 21:00 - 21:50 JST

Square Enix | 14:00 - 14:50 BST / 22:00 - 22:50 JST

25th September 

SEGA & Atlus TV | 12:00 - 12:50 BST / 20:00 - 23:00 JST

Capcom (ft. Resident Evil Village) | 14:00 - 14:50 BST / 22:00 - 22:50 JST

26th September 

Cyberpunk 2077 Night City Wire Japan Special | 06:00 - 06:50 BST / 14:00 - 14:50 JST

Level 5 TGS Special Meeting | 07:00 - 08:50 BST / 15:00 - 16:50 JST

Konami Information Program | 12:00 - 12:50 BST / 20:00 - 20:50 JST

Koei Tecmo Special (ft. Ryza 2 and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity) | 13:00 - 14:50 BST / 21:00 - 22:50 JST

27th September

Koei Tecmo Musou Special (ft. 2 new Dynasty Warrior titles) | 07:00 - 07:50 BST / 15:00 - 15:50 JST

Bandai Namco (ft. Scarlet Nexus and Sword Art Online) | 09:00 - 10:50 BST / 17:00 - 18:50 JST

Edited September 24, 2020 by Julius

[drahkon]

Gamescom was a huge disappointment this year...really hope that TGS will be a little more interesting. Microsoft has to deliver...

[Dcubed]

Looks quite promising.  Wonder if Microsoft might announce the (Inevitably much more Japanese home friendly) Series S console here?

Praying for Capcom to finally see sense and put out Monster Hunter Switch at long last...

Edited September 1, 2020 by Dcubed

[Ganepark32]

Seems Microsoft will be focused on already announce games in their TGS showcase:

Odd choice as you'd think they'd want to really show that they have a good slate of games for the Japanese market. I suspect that they'll show Dragon Quest 11 and Scarlet Nexus again and they'll probably have Resident Evil 8 but they'll need to show a bigger slate than that to show they're improving for that market. An expensive next gen console with limited Japanese IPs will do as well as the previous Xbox consoles.

I do also think the PS5 being expensive out the gate may also mean we see slower sales in Japan based solely on how that market has moved heavily to portable/mobile gaming but that will probably only a short term thing as the PS5 sales will steadily pick compared to the Xbox Series X which will flounder.

That's an aside anyway. Hopefully Microsoft have something up their sleeves for the showcase, though I suspect it'll follow on from another one earlier this month from Phil Spencer and such covering stuff they didn't shown in the last showcase, which has to be something from first parties as they've not shown a lot so far.

Edited September 2, 2020 by Ganepark32

[Happenstance]

That tweet is dumb. Isn’t that a double negative so there will be next gen news? 😆

[Will]

Will be interesting to see how this goes. It’s going to be a lot of “stuff” but the vast majority of the stages at TGS generally don’t have much going on most of the time. Maybe it will do them some good to have to limit their shows to these time slots as opposed to running through the whole four days.

I’m kind of sad it’s not happening in person. It’s one trip during the year that I really look forward to. The best thing about TGS is the merchandise hall so I’m definitely disappointed I can’t go and look through that buying crap for a few hours. Maybe that’s a good thing too though thinking about it.

[Julius]

NieR is going to be turning up with updates on Replicant ver. 1.22... (yeah, not typing the whole name out this time ), Reincarnation (mobile game) and Automata (I'm guessing word on a next gen upgrade?). 

The "We Have a Decent Amount of New Info" Special 

Edited September 10, 2020 by Julius

[Julius]

Right, this kicks off today!

Xbox at 13:00 - 13:50 BST, probably going to announce that they've acquired Japan  but in all seriousness, not really expecting too much from this showing. Maybe a surprise partnership with a Japanese studio at best (but I don't think any game announcements), but think it'll be geared more towards the Series S (think I just saw somewhere that it's going to be $30 lower in Japan? Not sure if that'll be low enough with the Switch in the same price range) and potentially some news on xCloud, which I think is the biggest potential gateway for Japanese customers at this stage into the Xbox ecosystem. Will it happen? No idea!

Stream (unsure if this has a translator or subs, so I'll keep an eye out!):

And then at 14:00 - 14:50 BST we have the Square Enix show, for which I think all of the games in attendance have been announced? Which is a bit of a shame. Most exciting thing in terms of fresh news I'm sure will be an update on NieR Replicant Ver. 122, and part of me will continue to hold out hope for a Final Fantasy I - VI Collection (but I mean...add some Dragon Quest games to that wishlist!). I don't think DQ XII shows here, imagine that's still cooking. But yeah, it does look like it's morphed more into a NieR showing (though, not complaining!). 

Stream (w/ English subs): 

Hopefully a decent pair of shows to open with, and one or two smaller surprises, is all I'm hoping for! 

Edited September 24, 2020 by Julius

[Julius]

TGS 2020: Quick & Dirty - Day 1

Just wanted to quickly run through the two big shows from today, Xbox and Square Enix. 

Xbox

Yeah, so Xbox has an anime mascot in Japan. Because why not?

The other big news was that, as previously revealed through price listings, the Series S would be launching nearly $30 lower than was previously mentioned in Japan. Originally it was going to be 32,980 yen, and is now going to be priced at 29,980 yen instead.

By the way, Series S pre-orders sold out quickly over there, and though we don't know what the stock allocation looked like, that seems to be a good sign.

Then it was a smattering of Phil talking about how Japan was the fastest growing Xbox market (not surprising given some of the numbers they've put up...), Samurai Shodown being announced as Series X|S launch title, and a new trailer for Scarlet Nexus. 

Oh, and a free Japan World Update coming to Flight Simulator next Tuesday (29th September). Game continues to look great!

Square Enix

Then it was over to Square Enix, and the somewhat shallow dive into NieR Replicant Ver. 122, which was announced to be releasing 23rd April 2021 in Europe and North America, and the day before in Japan. That's to PS4, PC, and perhaps a bit surprisingly, Xbox One too on Day 1. Continues to look great! 

The panel was a lot of fun, Yoko Taro is always an interesting character, and today was no different. I think his tweets before the show can give us a bit of insight into that 

We learned that NieR: Automata has sold over 4.85 million units worldwide, which is insane! 

And Dragon Quest XI (and it's Definitive Edition) has sold over 6 million units worldwide, which is even more insane! Much deserved, I love that game!

And lastly, NieR Re[in]carnation, the mobile game, was announced to be coming to the west. 

Tomorrow - Day 2

If Day 1 was an appetiser, this is...not really the main course (I mean, look at how stacked Day 3 is!), but a potentially better appetiser!

First up of the two major shows today we have SEGA & Atlus TV kicking things off at 12:00 BST. Will we finally see Persona 5 Scramble get a release date for the West? Knowing our luck, probably not! But with it being SEGA's 60th Anniversary, hopefully there will be one or two surprises for them to share! 

Following that, we have Capcom's Special Program scheduled from 14:00 - 14:50 BST, which they have already said will feature some reveals, as well as a better look at Resident Evil Village!

Should be another fun day! 

Edited September 24, 2020 by Julius

[Julius]

SEGA with by far the biggest botch of the show so far. 

CEO Haruki Satomi announces a "one last thing" towards the end of the SEGA & Atlus TV opener - which honestly didn't give us much of any news, but it's running for the next three days, so we might still have more to come - we see a bunch of arcade machines, and then it's clearly the silhouette of Akira from Virtua Fighter. He turns around, and across the screen reads

Virtua Fighter x esports

Cut back to the studio, the hosts have questions and thought it was an announcement for a new game, aaaaaaand it's the end of the show. Must suck really hard to be a VF fan right about now. 

EDIT: found the tease:

EDIT 2: Google translate seems to be hinting at a reboot..? But guess we'll have to wait until next time for further clarification on what exactly is going on. 

On a more positive note, the show opened with one of the weirdest but funniest ads I've ever seen, so I hope that goes up later. It was an emotional rollercoaster 

Capcom in just over an hour! 

Edited September 25, 2020 by Julius