Tokyo Game Show (TGS) has become one of the key gaming expos since E3 held its last in-person event in 2019. With much of the gaming industry centered on Japanese publishers and console makers, Tokyo is a natural hub for industry insiders. 2024 was no different, with Sega, Capcom, Konami, Bandai Namco, Square Enix, and a myriad of other Japanese publishers gaining interest on an international scale.
Where TGS 2024 did differ, however, was in its focus on PC gaming. Japanese consumers are realizing the many advantages of PC gaming over console gaming, and Japanese publishers are being pushed to follow suit. As demand for PC gaming increases, so too does Japanese interest in live-streaming platforms as a way to engage with PC-based communities.
In this article, we’re looking at who the big winners were from TGS 2024 based on live-streaming interest, and how emerging trends at TGS may affect the live-streaming community moving forward.
TGS 2024 Focuses on PC Games, Fighting Games, and Tentpole IP
TGS 2024 was a big success on live streaming, supported by coverage of the main Tokyo Game Show channel and publisher channels showcasing their side events. Taking all official streams together, TGS 2024 generated 430K hours watched across its 4-day span with a peak viewership of 105K. Of course, these numbers only reflect live viewership: Many fans will have got their news from YouTube VODs uploaded after the event. Live streaming still lagged behind in-person attendance however, with TGS 2024 seeing 275K attendees (up 12.9% from last year’s 243K attendees).
As mentioned earlier, the Tokyo Game Show games announced centered on PC gaming, with Steam and Xbox logos plastered on all the major booths. Most Japanese publishers are now either releasing their tentpole IP simultaneously on console and PC, or porting their titles to PC after a year-long grace period – like Sony with its many AAA PC ports of PlayStation games. New titles like Atlus’ Metaphor Re: Fantazio are following suit. This shift is driven by growing Japanese consumer interest in PC: Xbox Game Pass is offering cheap, high-quality titles on PC, and the PS5 Pro’s high price point may be deterring casual buyers.
This wasn’t the only trend, however. Each publisher seems to be going all-in on one big IP title for the upcoming year. Sega’s Sonic X Shadow Generations comes out in October (in the lead-up to the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 film), Konami hyped up its latest remake Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, and Bandai Namco promoted its upcoming fighting game Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero.
Speaking of which, fighting games were also popular at TGS 2024, with old-school Japanese studio SNK showing off Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. It feels like every Japanese publisher has to have a well-known fighting game IP in its catalog for popular live-streaming events like EVO Tokyo and Junichi Kato’s Hyper Game Tournament.
At Tokyo Game Show, Capcom ruled the roost among official streams. Capcom accounted for 3 of the top 10 streams either tagged or mentioning Tokyo Game Show (or TGS) in its title, with the top Capcom stream generating 118.5K hours watched. This overwhelming demand was for new details about Monster Hunter Wilds, which will release on the 28th of February next year. Capcom has pushed the multiplayer aspect of the franchise farther than ever before, requiring compulsory co-op play in every mission (albeit with AI companions if fans choose to play alone). This emphasis on social interaction is no doubt intended to drum up big-name collaborations on live-streaming to further promote the game.
A number of popular streamers also covered TGS 2024, providing their fans with commentary on the event’s biggest announcements. Among these, zackrawrr and Maximilian_DOOD had the most viewed streams with 270K and 96K hours watched, respectively. Fans were primarily interested in the streamers’ coverage of Day 1 of the event, getting to see all of the new exhibits for TGS 2024 with an artificial jungle for Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater and a massive mech for Mecha BREAK.
Doubling Down on Big IP With Remakes and Remasters is a Safe Bet
For a few years now, remakes and remasters of classic games have been the go-to revenue stream for AAA titles. Chief among these is Square Enix’s trilogy remake of Final Fantasy VII, splitting the game into three parts. TGS 2024 showed that this upcoming year would be no different: Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, Sonic X Shadows Generations, and Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven are just some of the remakes slated to release.
Remakes perform incredibly well on live-streaming, having initial momentum thanks to their IP recognition. Just looking at viewership from this past year sees Square Enix’s Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and Resident Evil 4 Remake generating 23M and 18M hours watched each. RPGs tend to perform best among remakes, allowing developers to update graphics and refresh storylines for a modern audience. Persona 3 Reload, Super Mario RPG, and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door all received both critical acclaim and praise from nostalgic fans.
For players craving new gameplay, the options are a bit more scarce. Atlus’ Metaphor: ReFantazio is an original title, but will feel very familiar to Persona players as it’s being developed by the same team. TGS 2024’s Selected Indie 80 section showed that innovation is being found among indie developers trying to break into the mass market industry. Among these indie games, DDDistortion’s title Nightmare Operator has been getting the most hype with its PS2-era throwback retro style and horror gameplay.
Xbox Game Pass Ignites Japanese Industry Interest in PC Gaming
Xbox Game Pass has been a major driving factor towards fresh interest in PC gaming. While Xbox might not have strong brand recognition in Japan compared to Sony, Game Pass is available on PC – a middleground for Japanese consumers. The top Xbox Game Pass titles over the past 12 months produce in the order of hundreds of millions of hours watched on live-streaming platforms, proving their dominance even over popular remakes. This overwhelming popularity is thanks to many of these games’ social features, including competitive play (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III), social deception (Among Us), and sandbox play (Minecraft).
At TGS 2024, Xbox capitalized on growing demand in the region with a blockbuster showcase of new titles coming to Xbox Game Pass. Many of these new Xbox Game Pass titles come from well-known franchises, just a few of which include Age of Mythology, Katamari Damacy, and Fallout. RPG fans had a lot to love with Square Enix releasing the upcoming Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake onto Game Pass (joining the Mana series as well). But perhaps the most hyped news for live-streaming fans was that StarCraft and StarCraft 2 would be joining Xbox Game Pass – a massive shift in the industry and a huge drawcard for South Korean streamers.
As Japanese developers venture deeper into the PC market, understanding live-streaming trends and strategies becomes more important than ever. For a region less accustomed to this market than Western developers, astute guidance is needed to find the right influencers to partner with and the right events to rally together their games’ communities. Stream Hatchet will be watching as Japanese publishers try out new campaigns on live streaming.
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