Two months and 300 miles removed from the gargantuan Tokyo Game Show, Games Japan Festa is an annual event the people of Osaka can call their own. While nowhere near the size or national renown of TGS, it is nonetheless an opportunity for game publishers to reach out to the Japanese public shortly before the holiday shopping season begins. The lack of an admission fee also goes a long way towards drawing in a wider variety of visitors, particularly families.
This year’s Festa was noticeably smaller than last year’s, with fewer developers showing fewer games. Local companies Capcom and SNK Playmore were absent, and Nintendo failed to make the trip from nearby Kyoto for the third straight year. I was also struck by how small a presence Sony had considering how successful the PS3 and PSP have been in Japan as of late. Sony’s tiny Move-centric booth paled in comparison to the local launch event the company held in a shopping mall last month. I saw eight different games in October, yet there were only three on display this weekend.
