Is the Tokyo Game Show what E3 '08 should have been?

Those in the know know of course that Japan is where the current trend toward shorter, more social, simpler "expanded audience" games began to become popular, but this was long before such a concept even existed in the rest of the world.

Slowly but surely, the trend caught on globally, to the point that in July many "traditional," "hardcore" gamers (including, I'll freely admit, myself, since an engine search will reveal any attempt at hiding it anyway) looked at the amazing amount of "me-too" rip-off ideas for casual games being "borrowed" by all the major hardware and software manufacturers and basically sighed in exasperation.

Yet now I'm watching the headlines coming out of the Tokyo Game Show and can't help but notice the most attention-grabbing ones are those catering to the hardcore gamer. An expansion of the X-Box 60's Halo 3? Check. More updates on Resident Evil 5? Right this way. How about Final Fantasy Versus XIII (I do not make up these titles, I just report them), a spin-off to a sequel that's not even out yet? They've got that too.

Meanwhile, last week, during an event Nintendo chose to hold all on its own, the company officially revealed its long-awaited sequel to boxing classic Punch-Out on the Wii, as well as unveiled yet another slight revision of the popular DS portable gaming system. Emphasis seemed again to be on the hardcore, with Nintendo offering the enthusiast press some playtime with upcoming first-person shooters Call of Duty 5 and The Conduit, as well as a closer look at action-adventure game MadWorld.

The current exhibitions by the three hardware companies may be in reaction to E3 being nothing but a blip on gamers' radar screens. Readers of this column who thought I was being overly dramatic when I dubbed it "worst E3 ever" should probably stay away from some of the less polite assessments that can be found elsewhere on the web.

The exhibitors are compensating now for their perceived lack of attention to the hardcore market earlier in the year. However, they know, as well as savvy gamers already do, that the "casual" games are not going to just disappear.

I think Japan is the "canary in the coal mine." However it has been very comfortable for about two decades with an ample supply of both casual and hardcore games. And this trend is basically going to start to trickle to the rest of the world.