Taipei Game Show 2017 (TGS 2017) officially kicks off on January 19th following six days of activities. The opening ceremony is joined by the General Director of Industrial Bureau Ministry of Economic Affairs – Dr. Ming-Ji Wu, Chairman of Taipei Computer Association – Tung Tzu-Hsien, Director of GameStart Singapore, Senior Manager of MDEC Malaysia, Manager of BIPA Korea, President of Jeonnam Global Game Center and Director of ESGS Exhibition Philippine. Indie Game Award ceremony is held at the same time, with winners coming from Taiwan, Singapore, Korea, United States and China.
B2B Zone & Indie Game Festa attracting worldwide game professionals
TGS 2017 is divided into two sections, with the business area “B2B Zone (Jan.19-20)” and the entertaining area “B2C Area (Jan.20-24)”. In B2B Zone & Indie Game Festa, a total of 229 game developers and companies from 26 countries attended. Top 3 participating countries are Japan, Korea and Hong Kong, providing diverse business networking chances for game professionals. On the opening day of B2B Zone, trade visitors from over 50 oversea game companies came in seek for cooperation opportunities with Taiwan game industry. In this two-day event, B2B Zone attracted nearly 2,000 game professionals from more than 30 countries with about 1,000 business meeting sessions.
Exhibitors of “Indie Games Festa” come from 22 countries. More than 100 original game IPs are presented, with mobile game as the biggest portion. Further, VR games are another highlight of Indie Game Festa, creating fun and excitement to the show. For example, 34BigThings, the independent developer from Italy brings its sci-fiction racing game “Redout” to test the Asia market reaction. The “BattleSky VR” from Oh!WHATif, Taiwan allows players to enjoy flying experience like a dragon. “CRANGA!: Harbor Frenzy” from HandMade Game, Korea is a well showcase of how VR application can level up gaming content. Moreover, the 3rd edition of “Indie Game Award” is participated by 68 game entries from 17 countries. In total, seven categories were given out; with Taiwanese indie game developers Noxy Games, Red Candle Games and SIGONO took away “Best Audio”, “Best Design” and “Best Narration” respectively, while Somi from Korea as the winner of “Grand Prix.”
Heavy-weight producer and VO lineup, bringing climax to B2C Area
B2C Area of TGS 2017 begins on January 20th, with PlayStation holding press conference at its booth. In the event, Taiwan version of “MLB THE SHOW 17” with special cover of MLB player Chen Wei-yin is revealed, and Chen later personally showed up at the booth. Further, the sales of PS4 Pro highly attracted the crowd. Thousands of players wait in line overnight for the 1,000 daily limited units. With the record-breaking game IPs showcasing in B2C Area, the opening day of B2C Area attracted over 80,000 public visits.
BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Taiwan Ltd. invited various famous game producers and designers to have fan meet-ups with players, including air combat game “Ace Combat7” producer Kono Kazutoki, “Tekken7” producer Harada Katsuhiro, game designer Michael Murray and “GUNDAM VERSUS” producer Yasuda Tadao. The second-time attending Ubisoft brings its latest IP “For Honor” with 100 sets of PS4 for players to experience. “Monster Strike” specially invites its heavy-weight producer – Koki Kimura to share the latest game content with the players. Additionally, TGS 2017 once again partners with live streaming platform Twitch for its live channel TGS Live (www.twitch.tv/tgslive). The channel will be broadcasted by hundreds of well-known streamers in Chinese, English and Japanese to the on-site and online players.
Asia Pacific Game Summit LIVE on VR
Asia Pacific Game Summit was held at the same time with B2B Zone, with five tracks ranging from industrial trends, marketing promotion, indie games, VR and game development/design. On day one, the conference begins with the topic of the oversea marketing strategy from the Japanese game IP “Monster Strike,” and followed by the creator of “League of Legends” – Riot Games sharing the potential of eSports. Later, Jeonnam Global Game Center marked the end of the first day by delivering a series of VR technologies sessions. On day two, besides the Facebook live streaming session, Razer, 3Glasses, Google Daydream and Google Play also shared their latest development of VR technologies to the public. In all, Asia Pacific Game Summit was packed with 2,500 audiences.