JAPAN: Country's top game makers show off their latest creations at Asia's top game exhibition the Tokyo Game Show

Record ID: 465034

  • Title: JAPAN: Country's top game makers show off their latest creations at Asia's top game exhibition the Tokyo Game Show
  • Date: 25th September 2009
  • Summary: SCREEN DISPLAYING WOMAN PLAYING "PROJECT NATAL"
  • Embargoed: 10th October 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz,Science / Technology
  • Reuters ID: LVACMXTSCXNM455KY8B5Q96UI60A
  • Story Text: Japan's top game makers show off their latest video games at the Tokyo Game Show, Asia's largest game exhibition.
    Asia's largest video game event, the Tokyo Game Show, kicked off on Thursday (September 24), with hundreds of media from around the world pressing and lining up, some for over an hour, to get the first glimpse of the latest and trendiest video games.
    Over 200,000 people, from industry specialists to the average video game players, are expected to flock to the outskirts of Tokyo for the four day show.
    About 180 video game makers including Sony and Microsoft are pulling out all the stops to promote their latest gadgets and games.
    Among the crowds of game makers competing for attention is a game called Natal, which works entirely on body gestures rather than a hand-held controller.
    "With 'Natal,' you can use all your body parts including your hands, legs as well as you brain so we're really hoping to promote this game," Joji Sakaguchi, marketing director of Microsoft's Xbox 360 Japan, told Reuters on Thursday (September 24).
    Microsoft hopes the new technology will vault it past Nintendo's all-conquering Wii and rival Sony's PlayStation.
    The company has lowered the price of its high-end Xbox 360 model by a quarter in Japan, keeping pace with Sony's launch of a cheaper PlayStation 3 ahead of the critical shopping season.
    Microsoft cut the price of the Xbox 360 Elite, which comes with a 120-gigabyte hard disk drive, to 29,800 yen (321 U.S. dollars) on September 10 from 39,800 yen (438 U.S. dollars).
    The price of the entry-level Xbox Arcade model will stay at 19,800 yen (218 U.S. dollars) in Japan, and the company will phase out its mid-range Xbox 360 model with a 60-GB hard drive.
    Microsoft said that it was cutting the price of the Elite model by 100 U.S. dollars to 299.99 U.S. dollars in the United States and by 50 euros to 249.99 euros in Europe.
    Sony, which competes head-on with Microsoft in terms of functionality of their game consoles and target users, was especially keen to show off a slimmer, cheaper version ofthe PlayStation 3 console in a bid to jump-start sales.
    The company also announced on Thursday (September 24), it will launch the "Gran Turismo 5" video game for Playstation 3 in March 2010 as many visitors rushed to Sony's booth to experience a test run.
    Many others spent time playing Sony's newest PlayStation Portable (PSPgo), a smaller and lighter version of former PlayStation Portable (PSP), which is to be launched on October 1.
    Sales of PlayStation 3 jumped in the weeks after a 100 U.S. dollar price cut last month and the company hopes to maintain consumer interest by adding more game options.
    "We're hoping to increase opportunities for people to enjoy a wide variety of Play Station games from rich content-heavy games to lighter games with cartoon characters," Daisuke Nakata, manager of Sony's corporate communications department, told Reuters on Thursday (September 24).
    The increase represents sales in the three weeks after Sony slashed the price of the PS3 to about 300 U.S. dollars in the United States last month, compared with sales for the three weeks before. The PS3's sales have lagged behind Nintendo Co Ltd's Wii and Microsoft Corp's Xbox.
    Sony says the company is on pace to meeting its goal of selling 13 million units by the end of its fiscal year in March, compared with 10.06 million units sold the previous year by the Japanese electronics and entertainment conglomerate.
    With consumer spending drained by the recession, sales of video games are down about 46 percent this year, according to the NPD Group - a U.S. research institution.
    While the number of video game makers have been on the declined at the annual game show, the number of cell phone game makers doubled up from last year, according to a Tokyo Game Show official.
    Many visitors crowded around various cell phones, including Apple's iPhone, trying out the latest games, which can easily be downloaded on to a cell phone.
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