Tokyo Game Show 2010 - Press conference timings
After GDC in March, E3 in June and gamescom just last month, we're primed for the last stop in gaming's trade fair world tour: Tokyo Game Show.
While it's no longer the biggest consumer trade show in the industry, having lost that trophy to gamescom, TGS is the main Asian games show and hosts large announcements, such as the reveal of the Wiimote in 2005; PS3's pre-launch price-cut in '06; and the reveals of Halo 3: ODST and Tekken 6 360 from Microsoft in '08.
EA and Sony are set to hold press conferences at this year's show, with a MS-fronted keynote coming on Thursday.
Here are your conference timings:
- EA Tokyo Game Show Showcase - 5.00pm Japanese time, 9am BST - Wednesday, September 15
Not a lot is known about what to expect from EA at the show, but if its E3 and gamescom pressers are anything, it'll be good.
EA's E3 conference saw first sightings of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Vietnam, as well as new showings of Dead Space 2, Medal of Honor and more.
And in Germany last month, EA dropped a March release and the first showing of Dragon Age 2, as well as announcing that Mass Effect 2 would be coming to PlayStation 3.
EA's already confirmed we'll see BFBC2: Vietnam in action at TGS, but that's likely to be overshadowed by the reveal of the EA Partners-led horror title from Grasshopper Manufacture's Suda-51 and Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami.
EA hasn't said yet if there's going to be a live stream.
- Capcom press conference - 8pm Japanese time, 12pm BST, Wednesday, September 15
Capcom's going all out this week, promising to announce four new games at TGS, as well as have some character reveals for Marvel vs Capcom 3.
No hints, officially, have been given to the identity of those four games, but speculation is mounting we're going to get a Devil May Cry 5 announce, with development duties going to Enslaved developer Ninja Theory.
A Resident Evil 6 reveal might not be far off the mark neither, with Capcom development boss Keiji Inafune saying recently the first info on it will be coming "shortly".
- Keynote: Microsoft's Phil Spencer and Takashi Sensui - 10:30am Japanese time, 2:30am BST, Thursday, September 16
The big keynote this year comes from Microsoft, who last headlined in 2008 with former corporate VP of Xbox, John Schappert.
This year will see Microsoft Game Studios boss Phil Spencer and Xbox Japan head Takashi Sensui take to the stage to discuss the future of Xbox in more detail.
MS has already promised we'll be seeing "some incredibly cool" Kinect stuff coming this week, so expect that to come out of this speech.
Further details are light, but Microsoft did announce Halo 3: ODST, nee Recon, at the Schappert keynote two years ago, as well as confirming a 360 version of Tekken 6.
- Sony press conference - 1pm Japanese time, 5am BST, Thursday, September 15
Last year's Sony TGS keynote saw a confirmed 2010 launch for Gran Turismo 5, as well as White Knight Chronicles II being announced.
The company also showed off Move hardware and software at the presser, such as LittleBigPlanet and Resident Evil 5. Expect Move to play a big role in this year's speech.
GT5 is likely to be a major part of the presentation, as the Japanese date for the Polyphony racer is still to be announced. The game will launch in early November in the west.
Fumito Ueda and Team ICO are likely to steal the show. The Last Guardian will definitely be at TGS, so expect a new video in the conference at least. You may even see gameplay.
Also expect the much-rumoured Team ICO Collection, consisting of ICO and Shadow of the Colossus, to be announced following yesterday's Eurogamer report.
As for Nintendo, it tends to skip TGS. A 3DS press conference will take place at the end of the month in Japan, so watch that for prices and dates.
And that's that. Keep it tuned here. We'll have everything you need to know.