Bungie announcement at Tokyo Game Show 2008

Tokyo Game Show 2008 kicks off this week with Microsoft keynote tomorrow
Tokyo Game Show 2008 kicks off this week with Microsoft keynote tomorrow

Bungie is set to make a major announcement at this year's Tokyo Game Show which kicks off with Microsoft's keynote tomorrow, the rather cheesily entitled "A Canvas for the World."

Xbox Live boss John Schappert will kick off the Tokyo Game Show 2008 fun and games at the Makuhari Messe tomorrow at 4am (UK time) and rest assured TechRadar will have our team on the ground to bring you all the important news as it happens.

Schappert's keynote - "A Canvas for the World" – will undoubtedly focus heavily on the cutesy new Xbox Experience UI update for 360, some big new Xbox Live Arcade titles from Japanese developers (remember last year brought us the mighty Igaruka and Rez), some big RPG announcements (the next Mistwalker RPG is rumoured) and – should the rumours prove to be true – also segue into some interesting announcements from Bungie (with the key members of the Bungie team having already been spotted on the ground in Tokyo).

Ninja developer joins Microsoft?

Tomonobu Itagaki, director of the Ninja Gaiden series, is also rumoured to be putting in an appearance. Pre-show whispering suggests that Microsoft may well have poached the renegade, whisky-slugging rock and roll games developer. Now that would be a coup…

With the death of the beastly spectacle that was E3, the Tokyo Game Show is arguably now the most important date on the international gaming calendar, attracting over 200,000 trade and consumer attendees (as well as some VERY strange cosplayer fetishists).

All the major Japanese developers and publishers are in attendance at TGS (along with a few US and European companies) to unveil their latest games, hardware and peripherals.

Namco-Bandai and Square-Enix announcements will no doubt steal the show for the hardcore Japanese gaming faithful, with updates also expected on Capcom's Resident Evil 5 and, no doubt, some interesting showings from those other Japanese giants SEGA and Konami.

Adam Hartley