Tokyo Game Show TGS 2015 PlayStation 4

The PlayStation 4's been far from a flop in Japan since its launch last year, but it's failed to kick on in quite the way that we expected it to. The console's sold in fits and starts, with big releases like Dragon Quest Heroes and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain prompting numbers to increase – only for them to shrink straight back down to the sorry status quo again. But platform holder Sony will be feeling confident this week, as all of the major Japanese publishers rally behind its box in an attempt to prolong the relevance of traditional gaming systems in the East.

And make no mistake about it, that's exactly what you're seeing. Square Enix alone has over ten titles in production for the new-gen format, and that's excluding the content coming from its handful of Western teams. But it's not alone: SEGA, Koei Tecmo, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Spike Chunsoft, and more all appeared during SCEJ's press conference earlier in the week – and they all had something to show for the firm's flagship format. Not everything was exclusive to the appliance – though that's starting to adapt – but the breadth of software was staggering.

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But what has changed? There were dark days during the PlayStation 3 era where it felt like the industry was all but done making consoles games, and yet there were over 100 upcoming PS4 titles for attendees to play in Tokyo this week. That number was, of course, eclipsed by smartphone releases – which also tended to have the biggest booths – but it represented an impressive increase over the 42 or so new-gen titles that Sony had to show this time last year. So why is a system that's faring so averagely domestically attracting so many big Japanese games?

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Well, there are obvious observations to be made. The simplest of these is that the PS4 is on fire globally, and Eastern publishers are starting to realise that there's a market for their titles overseas. We talked about this exact subject with Bandai Namco's localisation team earlier in the week, and they told us that they always look at "every product and property on a worldwide level". The market for something like Sword Art Online may not be as large as Call of Duty, but it exists – and if a game can be sold in the West, then it's not wholly reliant on its domestic release to succeed.

A dominant PS4 may well be a good thing for the Japanese industry, then. When the Xbox 360 was at its peak, it muddied the waters a little, and with the complex nature of the PS3 architecture, Eastern developers found themselves a little unsure of where to bank their bets. This led to long, costly production cycles, and a handful of titles failing to find the right audience. But with the global market for Japanese games almost solely existing on Sony's machine, there's no longer a danger of that occurring again.

The other thing to note is Japan's discovery of middleware. Off-the-shelf engines such as Unreal Engine 4 are becoming more and more prevalent, with major titles like Dragon Quest XI and Street Fighter V employing the easy-to-use technology. This simple change is enabling developers to focus on making games rather than technology, with the Panta Rhei-powered Deep Down absent this year yet again – a reminder of the headaches that proprietary software can create. Heck, Capcom's upcoming squad shooter Resident Evil Umbrella Corps is running on the free-to-try Unity platform.

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Sony seems to be back in a big way, too. Those up to speed on industry goings-on will know that Allan Becker left Sony Santa Monica in 2012 to join Japan Studio. He famously revealed in a Kotaku interview that the first-party firm was in a mess when he arrived, with 40 different projects in production, and many of them going nowhere. Since his return the developer's had a hand in titles such as Bloodborne, Soul Sacrifice, and Freedom Wars, while The Last Guardian and Gravity Rush have both been revived. We've heard on the grapevine that there's a big JRPG on the way, too.

Another positive for the PS4 is that the Japanese market is starting to open its mind to Western productions. The likes of Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty have always been moderately successful in the East, but titles such as Star Wars Battlefront and Fallout 4 won awards at TGS 2015 this week. Interest in the Guerrilla Games developed Horizon: Zero Dawn also seemed surprisingly large at a panel overnight; with the right kind of marketing, the Monster Hunter comparisons could make the open world role-playing release a surprise success in the East.

And all of this is a good thing because the PS4 has proven time and time again that with the right software it will shift units domestically. The likes of Nioh and Yakuza 6 – both of which are being developed exclusively for the device – prove that publishers now see a future for the format in Japan, and as its install base grows, the number of software that it receives is only going to increase. It's never going to get the kind of unprecedented support that the PS2 received, but in terms of where the industry's at right now, TGS 2015 offered the very best that we could expect.

Are you happy to see Japanese console games rebound in such a big way, or were you disappointed with what was on display at TGS 2015 anyway? Which titles in particular have caught your eye, and which will you be giving a miss? Turn your attention to Tokyo in the comments section below.