Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on October 2011

Tokyo Game Show seems very busy today. It’s almost as if the earthquake had no effect. How did the earthquake impact your company’s development and launch schedule?
It affected us because a lot of the companies supplying our components are located in affected areas. It also affected us psychologically, because in the springtime we thought: can we advertise? Can we promote these types of games? We had to stop some titles and new software. Launch dates were postponed. But in a lot of aspects, we thought we had to push on, because it’s really important to help the Japanese economy recover. We thought our sales in Tohoku region would be down. But we heard voices from people in trouble, and they wanted our products, so we saw great sales in that area as well.

With so much new game info online, what’s the point of a big expo like Tokyo Game Show?
It’s so fans and consumers can have a hands-on experience with games that have not been released yet. All these products will be launched in December. These titles are only available here and a lot of fans really look forward to coming here and doing this.

What kind of feedback have you been getting?
We get a lot of feedback through our community site after the show, but we have already heard that fans are really excited. We are launching our new platform, the PlayStation Vita, with 26 new titles. In the past, when new platforms were launched, only two or three titles were available—this coming December, there will be 26 titles. It’s a more integrated approach, and satisfies different needs.

Do the 26 new games designed specifically for the Vita use its new features?
Mostly yes. For example the back touch panel, the front touch panel, and the gyro sensor—those are the unique features that only Vita has, so a lot of game publishers have updated existing games and made new ones. About half the titles are entirely new, but in the case of existing games, the new experience is so different that, from our point of view, they’ve become totally different games. Anyway, the customer will decide whether this is exciting or not, and this is something they are checking now.

It sounds like console hardware development is driving gaming software development.
I think it works both ways. Sometimes it’s technology-driven; sometimes content-driven. Maybe we wouldn’t have developed the new technology without the strong demand from the content side.

Some game makers have decided that 3-D is the way forward. How about Sony?
We’re not Nintendo! But if you check our picture quality, you’ll feel some 3-D effects from the depth, and the beautiful, detailed pictures. 3-D is sometimes artificial. It can be difficult for the customer because, if they move, the 3-D doesn’t work. We don’t call our picture 3-D—but it’s still amazing.

There are three major game shows in the world. Unlike E3 in North America and Gamescom in Europe, is Tokyo Game Show more for the domestic market?
As you see here most of the visitors are Japanese and this show is for Japan. For example, if we had this type of exhibition in Hong Kong, very few Japanese consumers would go to Hong Kong. Even though this is in Tokyo, we also get a lot of requests from people in the rest of Japan, asking us to come to them. So, after TGS, we are going to have a caravan show to bring the Vita to five different cities.