Visitors pose with a mascot during the preview day for the Tokyo Game Show at Makuhari Messe in Chiba City, September, 2023.Visitors pose with a mascot during the preview day for the Tokyo Game Show at Makuhari Messe in Chiba City, September, 2023.to the cavernous expanse of the Makuhari Messe convention centre in the industrial hinterlands west of Tokyo.
There are different rules and expectations around gaming’s role in society, too. Unlike in Japan, where teenagers are free to play for as long as their parents or guardians will let them, the Chinese state introduced curfews in 2019 to limit access to video games among under-18s: 90 minutes a day, or three hours on public holidays. In 2021 these restrictions were further tightened, limiting play to one hour on Fridays, weekends and public holidays.
The impression is a little misleading; Japan remains a creative leader in the industry, but the money and power have mostly moved overseas. This year more than half of the approximately 700 exhibitors at the show were international companies. In September a rather included a message from Xbox’s CEO, Phil Spencer, in which he theorised on whether it might be possible for Microsoft to acquire Nintendo .