Kaz Hirai opening TGS

At last year's Tokyo Game Show, then-Sony Computer Entertainment president Ken Kutaragi delivered the opening remarks at the TGS Forum 2006. The forum is part of Business Day, an industry-only event that traditionally occurs two days prior to the show floor being opened to the public. While many industry watchers anticipated the seasoned exec would address and alleviate the concerns stemming from the PlayStation 3's launch delay and string of bad publicity, Kutaragi was content with primarily touting the PS3's technological superiority.

The Tokyo Game Show 2007 Web site was updated earlier today with news that Kaz Hirai will deliver the TGS Forum 2007 keynote address. The Sony exec's speech will occur on September 20, at the Makuhari Messe International Conference Hall in Chiba City, Japan. Earlier this year, Hirai was named as Kutaragi's successor and assumed the role of SCE president and CEO. Though the speaker has changed, the question on everyone's minds seems to be the same in light of Sony's recent PS3 pricing gaffe.

The Tokyo Game Show has traditionally been Sony's stomping grounds. However, with attendance for the open-to-the-public trade show reaching mind-boggling levels, many have speculated that the other two "big-three" console makers will have a more prominent presence at this year's show.

Last year, Sony unveiled five PS3 games during the show, including Ninja Gaiden Sigma from Tecmo's Team Ninja studio. Microsoft has also used the event to woo the elusive Japanese market. Last year, the publisher devoted much of its preshow press conference to highlighting games developed with the Japanese audience in mind, such as Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi's Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey as well as Namco Bandai's Trusty Bell (aka Eternal Sonata). On the other hand, Nintendo has taken to skipping the event entirely.

This year's Tokyo Game Show will run from September 20-23. As with last year's event, GameSpot will be on hand to provide complete coverage.