Tokyo Game Show 2004: smartphone games, mobile phones games the most exciting topic

Games are one of the drivers for mobile phones – and mobile phones are a driver for games. So the Tokyo Games Show is the place to go…

Tokyo Game Show 2004: Docomo’s mobile game partners

DoCoMo – as usual at most trade shows I attend in Tokyo – had one of the most impressive central exhibits with beautiful corners/desks for 15 selected i-mode game partners, out of over 4000 i-mode content partners thats a very select few:

Out of the selected 15 few, the makers of Final-Fantasy had the top spot and 3-4 times more space than all others – clearly an enviable spot on i-mode. Not surprisingly Final Fantasy is consistently at the top of the i-mode roleplaying game ranking:

Tokyo Game Show 2004: SONY PSP – PlayStation Portable

Probably the center of the show was SONY’s PSP preview (PSP = PlayStation Portable). With a 333MHz CPU the PSP would have been a supercomputer and subject to serious trade-friction talks between US and Japan trade negotiators not that long ago…. how times change. IEEE802.11b WiFi “HotSpot” connectivity brings the PSP into the serious communication segment – what holds someone back adding VOIP to a PSP, undercutting the business models of most mobile operators… The PSP is clearly disruptive innovation in action…

everyone wanted his/her hands on a PSP:

People love car races. I counted at least five stunning car race games. The most impressive display for me was SONY’s “Gran Turismo 4” to be released December 3, 2004. But I am no expert in car racing games – yet.

Mobile phones without NOKIA? In Japan, that’s essentially so. NOKIA tried to enter Japan’s markets several times – I tried a DoCoMo-NOKIA NM502i for a few months. NOKIA had a nice display at the Tokyo Game Show, the emphasis was on helping Japanese game developers enter GSM markets via the NOKIA platform.

Are these women ATARI’s software engineers?

…and ATI:

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If you are interested to purchase our archive report on “Tokyo Game Show 2004” with about 150 photographs, please contact us.

…and our report and analysis on Japan’s game industry with about 140 pages here:

Japan’s game makers and markets (32nd edition) – disruption by smartphone games

If you are interested to purchase one of our archived reports, please contact us:

• “Tokyo Game Show TGS2004” (160 pages, 150 figures/photographs, pdf file)
• Wireless Japan 2004 (110 page, 14 figures, 85 photographs, 5 tables, pdf file)
• Wireless Japan 2013 (60 pages, 68 figures/photographs, 5 tables, pdf file)

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