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Samantha Low
Held weekly at the Red Bull Gaming Sphere in Tokyo’s Nakano Ward, Tatakai Tuesday brings together both local and visiting fighting game enthusiasts.
LIFE / Digital / ON: GAMES
Nov 2, 2024
Blood, bruises and brotherhood at Tokyo’s fighting games club
Organizers Jonathan Metoyer and Andrew Fidelis started the events to 'replicate a sense of pressure you’d feel in competitive space.'
As is the trend in movies and TV, the games with the biggest budgets at Tokyo Game Show 2024 were by and large remakes and remasters.
LIFE / Digital / ON: GAMES
Oct 5, 2024
At Tokyo Game Show 2024, nostalgia was king
Indie gems were on the show floor, but the nostalgia from remakes and remasters drew the biggest crowds this year.
Tokyo Game Show opens to the public on Sept. 28 full of cosplayers promoting a full slate of new and upcoming titles.
LIFE / Digital
Sep 26, 2024
Tokyo Game Show 2024 stacked with big returns and hyped announcements
PlayStation returns to Tokyo Game Show for the first time since 2019 as Japan's biggest gaming show opens to the public on Sept. 29 and 29.
Held annually in Cologne, Germany, Gamescom is the world's largest gaming convention, meaning it attracts attendees and exhibitors from near and far.
LIFE / Digital / ON: GAMES
Sep 7, 2024
Traveling to Germany is ‘worth the cost’ for Japan’s indie studios
"Nothing beats seeing players' faces as they play our game in person, and getting to ask them directly about their experience, both positive and negative.”
Kingdom Hearts-inspired action-adventure game Luminous Nights was one of many indie titles that had to fight for attention on an increasingly crowded show floor.
LIFE / Digital / ON: GAMES
Aug 3, 2024
Bigger than ever, BitSummit’s indie spirit wears thin
As the indie game show grows, the question looms as to whether its current trajectory continues to be true to its original spirit.
While MyDearest's games are understably digital, employees also joke that sometimes they known coworkers only by their avatars used during meetings.
LIFE / Digital / ON: GAMES
Jun 21, 2024
Action drives VR, but Japan prizes anonymity and plot
A far cry from origins as a tech novelty, Japan's virtual reality industry is currently valued at $3.9 billion (about ¥615 billion).
SungWon Cho is a veteran with more than 10 years of experience portraying characters in anime, cartoons and video games.
LIFE / Digital / ON: GAMES
May 19, 2024
Want to be a voice actor? Stay 'true to the character'
“Most people think of just the cutscenes," SungWon Cho says, "but you end up voicing everything — the sounds a character makes when fighting, like battle cries, for example."
Since the original 2010 release, visual novel series Danganronpa has spawned eight mainline games (and several other titles) for a total 5 million copies sold worldwide.
LIFE / Digital / ON: GAMES
Apr 6, 2024
Are visual novels ready for a great leap forward?
Where reaction time and manual reflexes are in other genres, visual novels prize critical thinking and the ability to interpret characters’ motivations.
Chorus supported A Space for the Unbound by publishing the console versions of the game, which meant working closely with platforms like Nintendo for the eShop and physical versions while also providing additional Japanese localization for the game.
LIFE / Digital / ON: GAMES
Feb 24, 2024
How a small publisher links Japan to global indie gaming hits
Chorus Worldwide was founded in 2014, but the combined games pedigree of its core team goes much further back.
Final Fantasy VII Rebith, the second installment in the modern remastering of the 1997 classic scheduled for a Feb. 29 release, leads the slate of Japan-made games this year.
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON: GAMES
Jan 13, 2024
Final Fantasy and Tekken kick-start exciting year for gamers
Many upcoming titles are legacy franchises with recognizable faces that have withstood the ebb and flow of gaming popularity.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
May 4, 2023
Why IRL streaming in Japan is 'not for the faint of heart'
Privacy concerns and overzealous viewers can wear off the shine of filming in Japan, but many streamers say it's still very much worth it.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?