As I said in the other thread, I partially agree with your doubts.
But, is important if a game is announced specifically at TGS, or at Direct, or by Famitsu or something like that?
3DS saw a lot of announcments from Japanese third parties at E3 2011. Some of those games desappeared (FF Chocobo) but some of them are yet to be released now.
From those days, we saw a lot of announcments made in different ways: some in Directs, some by Famitsu, some simply with PR or site updates.
In the latest months if I remember correctly, we saw Atlus announcing SMT4, Capcom announcing Ex Troopers, Namco announcing Naruto, Dragon Ball and Vanguard, Level5 announcing Layton6.
I don't remember if they were made in Directs/Famitsu/Pre TGS events honestly ;p
But, there were major third parties announcments in the latest months for other consoles?
I think that we had FF XIII3 and MGS Ground Zero. Am I wrong? Any other big (I'm saying big because you asked for "200k +" titles) titltes announced for other systems?
I think that it is a situation common to the market, not 3DS releated. And among all the consoles, to me, looking at Famitsu weekly updates and indipendent events (as Direct, Heaven, or self-announced games) 3DS is the console that is receiving a costant support together with PS3 (that is very solid software-wise up to now in Japan) and maybe (but with minor projects, except God eater 2) PSP.
I think that with a lot of games already announced and yet to be released, it's also almost normal to not see a BLOWOUT of new titles; I think that we will continue to see announcments in the incoming monhts made by different channels (Vita heaven, N Direct, Famitsu, third parties own conferences as the Level 5 World Annual event and so on)
As E3 is no more THE big western event where to announce titles, also TGS is the same. And it's not something new: I remember that the only (almost) title announced at TGS 2008 was..No more heroes 2 for the Wii?
I'm not trying to pick on the 3DS, it's just that at the moment it's the only traditional major platform on the market that isn't fading or still unreleased, and it also has development costs somewhere between the PSP and the PS2, so it is a pretty easy platform to start making quite a few games for without hitting the HD production wall.
Also, the reason this TGS bothers me is not that it lacks announcements, but that it lacks announcements and that we've been a bit sparse on announcements for most of this year.
I mean, please correct me if I'm wrong/comment in whatever way you like, but here's how I see the currently announced 3DS support (and again, I'm only picking this as it's the only mature traditional platform that isn't in decline):
Capcom: Incredibly strong.
Level 5: As strong as modern day Level 5 can manage.
Namco Bandai: It is somewhat quiet here, but again, I feel this is because most of their content tends to target the lower end and the 3DS isn't to the point where they feel it has fully captured that. Their strong support is more of a when than if question to me.
Atlus: Pretty much the same level of support as they always do for any given primary platform.
Square Enix: Unusually barren. Now, this could change, but this one sticks out the most to me as Square Enix was one of the few major titans on the DS and PSP, especially in terms of publishers that also had global crossover appeal.
Tecmo Koei: There's not a ton here, but Tecmo Koei I feel was never a really strong handheld publisher.
Konami: Very barren. This isn't that surprising since they're also the most successful traditional publisher in the mobile/social space, but it does stick out since they had a few notable titles last handheld generation, especially in terms of the audience the 3DS has expanded to this generation.
Sega: Well, they've publicly said they're mostly exiting retail games and have been doing a good job proving it.
Now, you know, on paper there isn't a huge number of publishers that really stick out here, but I feel it is relevant because there are so few publishers to begin with.
As for big titles announced for other systems, especially ones within this year, the platform that sticks out to me the most is the PS3, but I feel most of those are the franchises that will just naturally transition to the next consoles as opposed to appear with mainline entries on handhelds.
Now, if we're sitting at this time next year and things look amazing across the Japanese industry, I'll totally admit I was wrong and there was nothing to worry about, it was just that Japan was in a lull between games. However, I can only really comment on what I currently see, and I feel I'm not the only one noticing this. I mean, even schuelma just pointed out that while the Wii U has some big hits, the volume isn't especially amazing, and again I'm not convinced that's due to an inherent problem with the system as opposed to a more fundamental issue with the publishers.
On a related note to the 3DS 3rd party discussion, it does strike me as odd that with the obvious exception of Monster Hunter and DQ (which of course are not original titles), if you look at it numbers wise Western support is far more substantial so far than Japanese support for Wii U.
I count a grand total of 8 Japanese developed 3rd party games right now (7 if you exclude NG3).
Now, I realize that Japan generally does things different in terms of lead time from announcement to release and there very well could be a few more titles announced for launch, but I thought it was interesting.
Yeah, there is always another hardware to work for but still, that mentality is absurd.
