The Taipei Game Show is to begin next week, one of the first major gaming events in the world this year, with the number of in-person attendees to be capped at 7,000 due to restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the organizers said on Wednesday.
The theme of this year’s show, “Gaming Forward,” represents the community’s undiminished enthusiasm despite the COVID-19 situation as it opens its doors from Saturday next week to Jan. 25 at Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center’s Hall 1, a spokesperson for the Taipei Computer Association (台北市電腦公會) told a news conference in Taipei.
The spokesperson said that 185 developers and publishers from about 20 countries would take part in the show either online or at the exhibition site itself.
Photo: CNA
One of the exhibitors is local video game publisher Neon Doctrine, which is to exhibit five games, company cofounder Vladislav Tsypljak told reporters.
One of the games he is promoting is The Legend of Tianding, which has more than 97 positive reviews on video game digital distribution service Steam, Tsypljak said.
The side-scrolling action game is based on historical Taiwanese folk hero Liao Tien-ding (廖添丁) who, legend has it, robbed from rich people and gave to the poor during Japanese colonial rule.
The Legend of Tianding is to be one of 140 games and hardware items showcased at the Taipei Game Show this year, the association said in a statement.
Tsypljak, 33, said that he moved most of his team to Taipei to help promote independent games from East Asia and Southeast Asia after attending the Taipei Game Show for the past six or seven years.
“So, we try to help the developers to gain more visibility, because, as you might know, there is a huge language barrier and culture barrier, especially if they want to showcase outside of this region,” Tsypljak said.
He primarily works with developers in Asia to help them reach the worldwide market, Tsypljak said.
Meanwhile, the B2B Zone and the Asia Pacific Game Summit are to take place online on Friday and Saturday next week.
The B2B Zone is to feature more than 300 developers from 32 countries promoting business matching and partnerships.
Association statistics showed that the global games market generated revenue of US$180.3 billion last year and US$159.3 billion in 2020.
The summit is to feature talks by gaming heavyweights from around the world, including Shuhei Yoshida, head of Indies Initiative at Sony Interactive Entertainment, and Atsushi Inaba and Hideki Kamiya, studio head and chief game designer respectively at PlatinumGames Inc.
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