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The story
Gaming news site automaton-media.com published an on-the-ground report from the “PlayStation Matsuri” event held in Umeda, Osaka, describing a thriving hands-on event where visitors could try out titles being shown at TGS2026. Lines reportedly stretched up to 45 minutes for the Gran Turismo 7 time-attack demo and the Astro Bot hands-on, but over on 5ch’s hardware/industry (console-war) board, posters who looked at the on-site photos fired back with comments like “isn’t this just barely ‘not completely empty’?” and “this is small-town-neighborhood-festival level.” The gap between the report’s upbeat tone and what the photos actually showed became the central point of debate, along with the fact that entry required a PSN-member lottery, and the apparent age of the crowd.
On-the-ground report from the “PlayStation Matsuri” held in Umeda, Osaka. A real-world event letting fans try out TGS2026 titles, drawing a huge crowd of visitors. The Gran Turismo 7 time-attack feature also drew plenty of attention.
Source: automaton-media.com / Read the original article here
What people said
Nah, they held a hands-on event at this exact same spot before the original Switch launched, and it was even emptier than this. I'd already preordered so it didn't affect me, but I was still shocked by the scramble to get one after launch.
For an event booth like this, that's dead empty. A kids' hero show would draw more people than this.
No, seriously — when the event's basically "If you're interested in PS5, please create a PS ID and apply to enter," which is already backwards, this counts as a massive win lol
Looks like the ~min-long tragedy was avoided this time.
Wait a second — this event was only open to paying PSN subscribers, and people are lining up to play Astro Bot, a game that's two years old??
You can play Astro Bot with zero wait time at the Yodobashi Umeda game section right next door, you know. Well, I guess events like this just naturally feel livelier than a regular store display.
What kind of half-asleep nonsense is that — this IS the hell festival.
Just because someone has PSN doesn't mean they own a PS5.
The PS5 is already entering its 7th year, and people are still keeping their PSN subscription just for their PS4? That's hilarious lol
Don't ask the impossible and expect these guys to have kids — the only kid in my life is my niece in 5th grade.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HVX4sqOaIAAZubg.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HVYxEKJbwAEImyy.jpg
Due to popular demand, scaled down to 120 people.
https://x.com/maohsama/status/2113899209783222572
Felt like a side shot would've been better, but… shooting from the side makes the blue shirts (staff) stand out more. Might've been Automaton being considerate there.
Can't just let THAT slide! (a pun on the classic meme reply "ほっとけねー" — "can't ignore it" — twisted with 毛, "hair")
Background and talking points
The story in question is an on-the-ground report from gaming news site automaton-media.com covering a PlayStation-hosted hands-on event tied to TGS2026. 5ch’s hardware/industry (console-war, aka “Geha”) board has a long-running habit of comparing Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft hardware and crowd turnout, and this thread was no exception — posters pored over the framing of the press photos (wide shots vs. overhead angles) and the length of the lines to gauge how busy the event really was. Attendance apparently required pre-registering a PSN account and winning a lottery slot, which may explain why the crowd looked older than expected. The “that Shibuya disaster” mentioned in post #17 refers to an earlier PS5 hands-on event held in Shibuya, Tokyo, whose sparse turnout became a running joke on social media — an incident that gets cited again and again on the console-war board.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (hardware/industry, “Geha”) thread “On-the-ground report from the “PlayStation Matsuri” held in Umeda, Osaka.“
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