Kutaragi, Wada headlining Tokyo Game Show 2006

Tokyo Game Show 2006 will kick off September 22 with "Business Day," a day devoted entirely to game professionals. The main event of the day will be the TGS Forum 2006, which will include sessions on next-generation hardware trends, the latest game technology, and much more. Yesterday, the Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association (CESA), the organizer of the event, revealed the TGS Forum panelists on the official TGS Web site.

It turns out that Business Day will be introduced by none other than Sony Computer Entertainment president Ken Kutaragi and Square Enix president Yoichi Wada. In his keynote address, titled "The Next Generation of Entertainment Created by the PlayStation 3," Kutaragi "will make predictions on the future of entertainment" within the context of the PS3's "unprecedented real-time computing capabilities." Yoichi Wada's keynote address, titled "Potential and Issues in the Gaming Industry," will address a number of hot-button topics, such as the furor over intellectual property rights.

A number of other notable figures will participate in panel discussions on Business Day. Kenji Matsubara from Koei will be among the panelists in the Online Games Session. Jun Takeuchi, who is producing Resident Evil 5 (called Biohazard 5 in Japan), will lead the Character Session. In addition, Epic Games vice president Jay Wilbur and CEO Michael Capps will lead a developer session devoted to Epic's Unreal Engine 3. Themes of other planned sessions include mobile phone gaming, financing, and marketing.