Masahiro Sakurai Reflects on Tokyo Game Show 2020 Online

Masahiro Sakurai wrote his reflections on Tokyo Game Show 2020 Online in his latest Famitsu column. He has some criticisms on how most of the programs were shown in the online event. [Thanks, Ryokutya2089.]

Here are some highlights from Masahiro Sakurai’s column:

• “It’s difficult to find the programs we want to watch. When we left it all to YouTube’s recommended [videos] AI, we couldn’t really reach our desired programs.”
• “There is a necessity to match information with expectations. I got the impression that there will be bad reputations if they continue to be deployed like variety shows. There might be a need to make the title and content clear beforehand. NieR had one titled ‘A special with practically no new info,’ which is a clever one!”
• “I felt like the comments tend to get rough. I had the impression that people instantly started to mount and self-assert. I couldn’t stand it, so I did things like closing the comment bar. Unfortunately, there are practically no solutions to this.”
• “There were opportunities lost due to the long-stretched programs. It’s good that there is a festive feel to them. But on the other hand, there were also demerits, such as getting difficult to focus on favorite titles or clashing with other programs.”
• “As an extremely important point, every development also received a huge impact from the coronavirus pandemic. This game show was held with a huge handicap. I want to thank every maker [company] for doing their best.”

Masahiro Sakurai himself was present at the Japan Game Awards 2020 ceremony, which was part of TGS 2020. As the leader of the Game Designers Award’s 10-man judge panel—consisting of famous Japanese game creators including Yoko Taro—he gave the award to Baba is You while showing himself trying out the innovative puzzle game.

Tokyo Game Show 2020 Online was held on September 23-27, 2020.