Tokyo Game Show 2006 Adds Exhibitors

Organizers of the Japan's Tokyo Game Show 2006, to be held September 22nd to the 24th 2006 at the Makuhari Messe in Tokyo's Chiba prefecture, have revealed an updated exhibitor list, confirmed that this year's show has an all-time high 134 companies showing a total of 1,702 individual products. However, it's notable that Nintendo, currently dominating Japanese hardware sales with its DS Lite handheld, will again not make an appearance at the event, as is traditional for the company. The Kyoto-based firm once ran its own Space World events as an alternative to appearing at TGS, and now eschews public exhibition of its games at a large-scale event. In addition, the organizers have announced that they aim to repeat the Tokyo Game Show's success as an important international event in this anniversary year, and are expecting 160,000 attendees (actually slightly reduced from 2005's totals) to show up for the three-day event. As previously announced, the 10th anniversary show's theme, jointly announced by Japanese game industry trade body CESA and its chairman and Square Enix president Yoichi Wada, is 'new stimulus, new feeling, new era', according to a Japanese-language press statement released on the official Tokyo Game Show site. The theme, according to CESA, "is meant to reflect the changing and converging landscape, one in which consumer consoles, online games, mobile games and next-gen are all supported." More information about the show is available on the English-language version of the official Tokyo Game Show website, and Gamasutra will be at TGS to bring detailed keynote and interview reports this year, as in previous years.