Our usual Tokyo Game Show procedure involves a quick sprint from any interesting conference on the morning of Day One (which has always been a day reserved for industry people) to the main show floor, where we then spend the next six hours scurrying from booth to booth like game-loving rabbits in springtime. Day Two is when we photograph all the pretty girls at the show, because there's no way we're waiting with the public to play the same games again, while Day Three is spent in a passing state of moral turmoil -- all those innocent girls just loved being photographed by us, really, didn't they?

Anyway, today Japan's Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association (aka CESA, whom all should hail) has announced the addition of an extra Business Day. The extra press day is going to make our job a whole lot easier this September: it means we'll have Thursday 20 and Friday 21 allotted for playing games, and we can still spend Saturday and Sunday in pursuit of mannequin smiles. Perfect. (Well, almost perfect -- now we just need Nintendo to turn up.)

Eurogamer's Rob Fahey provides a couple new details on some of the online features of the PlayStation 3.

Fahey asks a key question, but unfortunately never gets around to answering it: "Can a company whose online strategy in the last generation was so patchy, and their actual service so weak, really turn things around on the online front in time for the PS3's launch?"

Here's a summary of the write-up, lorry-loads of fluff removed:

• The core OS of the system can be updated by Sony online [we knew this; it's expected in any online system]
• Both PS3 SKUs include a hard drive, critical for downloading content [we also knew this, but it's worth repeating as an advantage of the lower-priced PS3 bundle versus the Xbox 360's lowest-priced system]
• The system stores the profiles of different users within the household. Select a profile and the system logs that profile in, setting system configuration details according to the data stored with that profile. [We knew this.]
• Settings are managed via an interface that looks like the PSP's settings interface. Configure network settings, passwords, and so on. [We knew this.]
• "Fully-functional" web browser that will allow users to access "any site" on the internet. [We knew this.]
• The system tracks the online status of the people on your friends list. Users can send friends text messages (via a PSP-style text messaging system or via USB keyboard), engage in voice and video chat [no voice mail?], and view pop-up notices as friend status changes. The system doesn't allow one to respond to these in-game status pop-ups, so you'll have to exit your game if you want to read the message you just received. [New detail?]
• Account management: there are two types of PlayStation Network account: master accounts are like administrator accounts, while "associated accounts" can be restricted in some unspecified way. [New detail?]
• Global sign-in IDs: like Xbox Live, global IDs make the process of finding and adding friends to your friends list an easier task than, say, punching in an obfuscated alpha-numeric code. [We knew this.]
• PlayStation Store: obtain demos, purchase downloadable PSone and PS2 games, purchase downloadable extras (horse armor FTW), and pay for subscriptions to certain (premium) online games in local currency. Sony avoids getting eaten alive by transaction fees by requiring deposits of cash into a virtual wallet. Once cash is deposited to the wallet, it's spent the same way MS Points are spent. [Does this mean that credit cards are required for online purchases?] Game-specific mini marts will show premium content for a specific game only. [We knew this.]

Though it wasn't playable on the Tokyo Game Show floor -- not even in the booth with other mature-rated games like Riot Act (Crackdown) and Dead Rising -- Microsoft was giving press a tease of Gears of War, their fall lineup's killer app. Alan Willard, a technical designer at Epic Games and a giant scruff of a man with a penchant for terse answers, walked us through a demo level gleefully pointing out areas of interest. For example, the gratuitous splattering of blood and gore that spits onto the screen after the equally gratuitous chainsaw-bayoneting was his handiwork. "I did that," he said proudly. And, if you're curious, it's a particle effect.

The number of foreign game developers descending upon China has become legion, and Epic Games is the latest to establish a foothold in the growing market. At the Tokyo Game Show, Epic VP Jay Wilbur outlined his company's plans to create an outsourcing division in Shanghai, which will be responsible for creating assets to be used both internally and by third party developers. Not only will Epic be cutting production costs, but their new office (and popular Unreal 3 engine) will most likely attract the attention of local outfits Shanda, The9, and the forthcoming Made in China Online Game Project.

See also:

• Epic's Rein talks Gears, UT2007
• American McGee gets episodic in Shanghai
  

Advertising's omnipresence in Tokyo is so complete and thorough that we only take notice when it's missing. Like air, you only notice it when it's gone.

It's therefore notable that most prime Makuhari convention center facades lack advertising of any sort, even though they were clearly designed to support large-format ads. There are a few possibilities that might help explain what's going on:

• Advertising's inneffective: Given limited budget, game companies appear to prefer to pour Yen into their booths, the babes that staff them, the bags the babes hand out, and other tangible improvements to enhance their show presences. Game promoters have other means of driving traffic to (and interest in) their booths and their games.
• Bad placement: Advertising plastered on lofty facades might be worthless if everyone's got his nose buried in a portable game device
• Operational challenges: Perhaps show organizers aren't too skilled at wringing money from companies in attendance (if there's one thing the E3 organizers did well, it's help companies shell out lots of dough).
• Small potatoes: in the grand scheme of things, this show isn't that important. It's just three days out of a 24-7, 365-day effort to woo gamers. That might explain why Nintendo's nowhere to be seen.

The 20? Near the exits of Chiba's Kaihin Makuhari train station, where a crack team of Microsoft marketeers established an outpost during morning rush hour each day of the Tokyo Game Show.

Their mission? Grab virgin mindshare before attendees could be dazzled by competitors' booths full of bleeps, bloops, babes and strobes.

Their weapon? A bag emblazoned with the Blue Dragon name and logo. As far as TGS schwag goes, these bags are like the thing. Attendees just gobble them up. Check my impersonation of a TGS attendee: "Hey! Free bag!"

It's clear that Microsoft's working hard to promote developer Mistwalker's Blue Dragon, but it's hard to believe that any single title will be the silver bullet that the company so badly needs in this market. They're working it, but to what end? We look forward to next week's Xbox 360 sales numbers for the Japan territory.

Sure, the Wii line consumed entire days of weary E3 visitor's schedules, as Nintendo bottlenecked the fawning throngs into a single drip feed. But the open-to-the-public TGS line is on a scale all its own, extending from the entrance of the Makuhari Messe convention cener in Chiba, all the way to the trains from Tokyo that appeared to be delivering eager pilgrims to the event quicker than the event could absorb them into its fold.

This video clocks in at a foot-anchingly long twelve minutes. We don't recommend watching the entire thing ... maybe just jump from part to part. Or use a stopwatch to count down twelve minutes and then check in at the end. If we can assume that our walking speed was about 4mph (the average is three, but we were walking pretty fast), and it took us twelve minutes, the line was roughly 0.8 miles. And growing.

Viva Piñata was our first in a series of Microsoft press events being held yesterday during the first day of the open-to-the-public portion of the Tokyo Game Show. Safely huddled away from the unwashed gaming masses filling the Makuhari Messe convention center to within an inch of its legal limitations, I pulled up a chair to be walked through Rare's holiday hopeful by Michael Johnson, a Global Product Manager at Microsoft

Though we're inclined to process their insistence that Viva Piñata offers a depth of play that makes the kiddie-happy "life simulator" appealing to older audiences as self serving (of course they think it will be), there are several elements of the game that strike me as a bit twisted, in a wry, British sort of way. In addition to being able to crack open your piñatas and watch their sugary entrails pour out, the sensitive issue of procreation is handled quite literally through a "romance dance." No Hot Coffee minigame here, just the right tunes and the right moves, and somehow a stork gets the message that he should whip up some offspring to be delivered in egg format -- no icky birthing process necessary!

Sony's presence dominates the TGS show floor once again this year. In addition to leasing the most square footage (for the most fanboy frottage), Sony makes their presence felt through booth architecture that skillfully mixes art and technology.

Almost completely devoid of ornamentation, the matte-black cube seems to suck light and sound out of the air like the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. This is nearly the same booth that defined the Sony presence at last year's show, but it's evolved a bit. Sony dropped the grey cornice seen atop last year's booth and added a thin red accent in order to make the PlayStation name more prominent. That's an improvement.

Sony's also using all four sides of the booth to showcase PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable products this year. This decision moves some of the overwhelming booth traffic to the "sidewalk" outside the structure, a helpful move given the crush of bodies inside the booth.

Killzone 2 isn't the only highly anticipated shooter not rocking the TGS show floor this year. Epic Games' upcoming 360 would-be killer-app Gears of War isn't playable on the show floor, though it is represented in video and pamphlet form at Microsoft's booth.

So why is it that a surefire hit, just a couple months from shipping, isn't playable? Microsoft is doing everything they can to woo the heretofore elusive Japanese gamer, so why not trot out their prize-winning pony? Sure, they want to focus all eyes on Hironobu Sakaguchi's 360-exclusive JRPGs Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, but there's plenty of room for all three at TGS. And we know Japanese gamers tend to shy away from the hardcore shooters, but every little bit helps, right?

In reality, the real reason Gears of War isn't at TGS isn't as shady as the complete disappearance of Killzone 2 from all Sony communications, it's a problem with Japan's censors. You see, the extremely graphic nature of the game is currently giving Microsoft a little bit of trouble getting it approved. During a press screening of Gears, a Microsoft rep did note that while a TGS showing just wasn't to be, the game will be playable at next week's X06 event in Barcelona. Unfortunately, the European Xbox 360 market doesn't need all the help it can get. Japan does.

[Grotesque headshot image, courtesy carbonscoring.]

When Sony showed the now-infamous Killzone 2 trailer at E3 2005 I got goosebumps all over. Though we're all aware now that the trailer was merely CGI flimflammery, the memory still haunts those of us lucky enough to experience it in that darkened theater with sound so rich and deep it gave us a heart massage.

Therefore, it's with no small disappointment that we report that Killzone 2 remains AWOL. After mysteriously disappearing from the E3 2006 lineup, Killzone 2 failed to show up at TGS.

Some would suggest that this isn't a big deal as the Japanese gamer doesn't dig FPS games all that much. That excuse doesn't explain the huge presence of Resistance: Fall of Man in Sony's TGS booth. What gives?

It's a TGS ritual: when the clock strikes five, booth managers round up all of the lovely female 20-somethings that they paid to prettify their booths and line them up for a five-minute photo opportunity.

Show attendees oblige, whipping out their massive camera rigs, kneeling, zooming and snapping thousands of photographs in the fleeting moments before the booth managers lead the women away again.

Though we don't typically engage in such flights of fappery, we think it important to document this spectacle. (It makes us feel dirty to take these photos, but for you, readers, we subject ourselves to all manner of difficult game blog assignment.)

Click "continue" for more photos.

Pictured above: a life-size statue of Sora, the protagonist from hit action-RPG franchise Kingdom Hearts (PS2). We have it on good authority that he held that rictus grin all day, despite the sweaty photogs who shoved lenses in his face.

Pictured below: the key to our hotel rooms at the Century Hyatt in Tokyo. Coincidence? Yeah. That's just how some keys are made 'round here. But I'm obsessed with games, so whatever it is I think I see, becomes a tootsie roll to me.

On our way to the Makuhari convention center this morning we decided to take a quick census to better describe the difference between TGS and E3 (and between gaming in America and gaming in Japan).

To gather this data, we stood at a chokepoint on the way to the convention center and counted the number of men, women and small children to walk by.

As the table below shows, women comprise approximately 25% of the attendees at TGS. The actual number of women here is somewhat higher because we conducted our census at 10 AM, after most of the booth ladies were required to be in costume and posted at their show-floor stations.

We lack similar data for E3, but our gut feeling is that there are at least triple or quadruple the number of women at this show, many of them arriving with significant others and children in tow.

Update 1: Reader Eric responds, "of course comparing the number of women at TGS and E3 is pretty irrelevent seeing as TGS is open to the public today and tomorrow, while E3 is not."

Great point. However, let's not kid ourselves. E3's "industry only" policy and age-restrictions were habitually ignored. That's part of the reason why exhibitors pulled the plug on E3: it was full of hardcore gamer nerds who had no business reason to be there. TGS at least doesn't even pretend to be "industry only." In the end, the people that showed up to E3 and the people that show up to TGS are the hardest of the hardcore. We think it's interesting that "hardcore" in Japan tends to include many, many more women.

1UP reports of an SNK Playmore pamphlet circulating the halls of Tokyo Game Show, advertising Metal Slug for Xbox Live Arcade. Allegedly, the text translates to "the original," suggesting that Metal Slug 1 will arrive on Microsoft's download service. But when?

Aside from the XBLA pipeline being jammed full of pending titles, Metal Slug also has its unofficial successor, Alien Hominid, to contend with. With Hominid well ahead of Metal Slug in the queue, and (hopefully) a more dedicated effort from Microsoft to diversify XBLA content as the service evolves, SNK's classic could fall by the wayside. We predict a late 2007 rollout.