Taipei Game Show and Taipei International Comics & Animation Festival Event Report

Earlier this year, Cygames participated in two major conventions held in Taiwan: Taipei Game Show and Taipei International Comics & Animation Festival. In this article, we feature highlights from the booths at each event and an exclusive interview with the Cygames Taiwan team!

What is Taipei Game Show?

Held at the start of every year, Taipei Game Show is Taiwan’s largest gaming exhibition. Spanning January 23-26, this year’s show drew over 370,000 attendees and exhibited over 350 titles across multiple platforms, including console, PC, and mobile games.

What is Taipei International Comics & Animation Festival?

Taipei International Comics & Animation Festival (TiCA) is one of the biggest events for comics and anime in Asia. Held February 2-6 this year, the festival attracted over 485,000 visitors, and showcased over 800 booths, the latest anime and manga releases, exclusive merchandise, and autograph sessions.

Stage Events, Trailers, and More:
Cygames Booth Highlights

The Cygames booth at Taipei Game Show featured an abundance of fun activities, including playable demos of Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash, Granblue Fantasy: Relink, and Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, as well as a tournament and cosplay show live on stage. Fans could also snap a picture at the Shadowverse: Worlds Beyond photo area and pick up merchandise of their favorite Cygames titles at the official on-site store.

At TiCA, the Cygames booth showcased trailers for various games and anime productions, a Shadowverse: Worlds Beyond photo booth, and a well-stocked merchandise corner.

Interview with Cygames Taiwan Staff

Why did Cygames decide to participate in these events?

There’s a substantial audience in Taiwan that enjoys Japanese content, including titles we develop at Cygames like Umamusume: Pretty Derby (Umamusume). However, since most of our marketing in Taiwan is handled by publishers, we’ve noticed that a number of people play our games without knowing they are developed by Cygames.

When we restructured Cygames Taiwan last October, we also established a marketing operation. In doing so, we hope to build a stronger awareness in the region that these beloved games were produced by Cygames. We thought participating in both events would be a good first step toward achieving that goal.

What were some specific elements you made sure to include in the booths at each event?

One aspect we were most particular about at Taipei Game Show was our stage events. We don’t typically set up stages for our overseas exhibitions, but we wanted to give people in Taiwan a proper look at the titles Cygames produces, so we installed one in our booth and organized a variety of live activities like tournaments and game introduction segments with influencers. The response was greater than we expected and plenty of visitors gathered around our booth to watch the stage events.

For TiCA, we focused on offering a diverse lineup of merchandise. By including items from Umamusume, Granblue Fantasy, Princess Connect! Re: Dive, and Rage of Bahamut, we aimed to create an entry point for visitors to learn about our games, and gave fans an opportunity to get their hands on merchandise that’s hard to find in Taiwan. We also offered items that were sold at Cygames Exhibitions: Artworks, which was held at the Ueno Royal Museum in 2023.

Did you face any challenges as first-time participants?

In Japan, events like these typically allow you to prepare for the next day after the venue closes, but this time we were required to leave as soon as the doors closed at 6:00 p.m. That meant we had to get ready for the following day while managing our booth, which was a bit of a struggle. I’ve been planning for events like these for years, but this was the first time I got to go home early while working at one. (Laugh)

What other differences did you notice between these events and those held in Japan?

This year’s Taipei Game Show drew 370,000 visitors, which is significantly more than Tokyo Game Show’s 270,000. The show was held over a long holiday for students, so one thing we noticed was a significant number of younger attendees.

There were a lot of young visitors at TiCA as well. But, since the event followed the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year), what stood out to us most at this event was the sea of young faces lining up to buy merchandise and surprise bags with their New Year money.

How did attendees respond to Cygames’ presence at each event?

Visitors at both events were very welcoming of Cygames. News that we would be running booths was well received by locals—to the point that some people came to our booth as soon as the doors opened. It was clear to us that interest was high among fans in Taiwan. In contrast, we heard a lot of visitors expressing surprise that a game they know about was produced by Cygames. Moving forward, we hope to take advantage of every opportunity in Taiwan to introduce more people to Cygames as a company and to the exciting content we offer.

What is your vision for Cygames in Taiwan?

Eventually, we’d like to expand our activities beyond attending conventions and try new things, such as establishing our own avenues of communication and promoting our content through local media. We’ve got plenty of work ahead of us, but for the time being, our team at Cygames Taiwan will be focusing on the launch of a number of new titles, including Shadowverse: Worlds Beyond. We hope everyone in Taiwan is excited for what Cygames has in store!