TGS ‘08: Post-Mortem
- Scribbled on October 13th, 2008 by Jonah Falcon
- Filed in Microsoft Xbox 360, Mobile Gaming, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, PC, Sony PSP, Sony PlayStation 2, Sony PlayStation 3, Tokyo Game Show
Blog.Wired has a chart showing the percentage of the show floor at this year’s Tokyo Game Show, which displays the trend is floor space for each console system.
The PlayStation 2, for instance, occupied only 1% of the space, after dominating it in 2004 with over 1/3 of the floor, and had 7% of the floor last year.
Of the current consoles, three increased their space: the Nintendo DS (which led all systems with 18.7% – up from last year’s 17.1%), the PSP (which by far had the biggest leap from last year: 2.6% to 7.8%), and the Xbox 360 (4.9% to 7%). The PlayStation 3 had a marginal increase from 3.2% to 3.5%.
Meanwhile, the Wii dropped from 8.1% to 7.1%, PC games from 22.7% to 17.5%, and mobile phones had the most precipitous decline from dominating last years show at 32.2% to 18.0%.
From the chart, one can conclude two things: mobile gaming has not panned out as developers and publishers thought it would, and things are starting to coalesce towards the center in Japan in terms of gaming rigs as the Xbox 360 and PSP gain acceptance.
October 13th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
I’m glad mobile gaming is dying, what a terrible idea. Universal devices are nice on paper, but they end up being mediocre in reality…
The jump of popularity of the 360 in Japan came as a surprise to me, but who knew. The DS is no surprise.
October 13th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
It’s not DYING. It’s just not the Next Big Thing. There will always be a place for mobile games – see: Guitar Hero Mobile and Orcs & Elves. The iPhone isn’t going to outdo the DS and PSP.