The 30th anniversary of the Tokyo Game Show (TGS) was billed as "the longest five days of nonstop play," promising a glimpse into the next chapter of interactive entertainment. In practice, the event at Makuhari Messe – Japan’s biggest gaming exhibition hall – wrapped up after just four days, with the final day scrapped due to an approaching typhoon. Even within those four days, the show seemed more preoccupied with celebrating what has already happened than with boldly projecting what lies ahead.
The industry as a whole is in a state of transition. While the Nintendo Switch 2’s strong launch and the continued expansion of PC gaming have helped mask underlying tremors, the underlying currents are still shifting. In Japan, those two platforms now account for most of the recent growth, eclipsing the once‑dominant mobile and free‑to‑play segment that filled the previous year’s floors. This year, Chinese developers were noticeably absent, a casualty of rising geopolitical tension, which further muted the global feel of the exhibition.
As a result, the overall vision for the future felt vague, because the spotlight was largely trained on nostalgic titles and re‑imagined classics. At Sega’s stand, the most talked‑about attraction was not a brand‑new intellectual property such as "Stranger Than Heaven" from the Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios, but the upcoming remake of "Persona 4 Golden." The booth buzzed with DJs, cosplay dancers, and a demo that drew the longest queues of the day.
Square Enix, on the other hand, kept its presence minimal: the finale of the "Final Fantasy VII" remake trilogy, with its iconic meteor and Sephiroth imagery, dominated the visual space, while a new HD‑2D project called "Final Fantasy Resonance" showcased characters from across the franchise’s history. Capcom’s area was largely devoted to demo kiosks for the new "Monster Hunter Wilds" expansion, but it also featured Switch 2 ports of the classic "Resident Evil" entries (2, 3 and 4) and a fresh "Mega Man" title. Among the heavyweight developers, only Bandai Namco and Konami brought genuinely new projects to the floor. Bandai Namco presented a new "Gundam" game alongside anime‑based tie‑ins and the upcoming "Ace Combat 8." Konami, meanwhile, unveiled a reimagined "Castlevania" with a radically different art direction and previewed two non‑playable concepts – "Rhapsody in Scarlet" and "Rev:Noir" – as well as a teaser for "Silent Hill Townfall." Several factors explain why the show felt so retrospective.
TGS takes place in September, a month traditionally crowded with new releases, as many publishers avoid direct competition with the November launch of "Grand Theft Auto VI." Even without a playable demo, the Netflix showcase, presented in a haptic‑enhanced theater, drew huge crowds, partly because attendees received a free PlayStation T‑shirt featuring the GTA logo. The most popular attractions, however, were still familiar franchises rather than bold new experiments. The one technology that unmistakably loomed over the exhibition was generative artificial intelligence. Developers tout AI as a tool that can speed up coding, generate concept art, and produce small‑scale assets at lower cost.
Critics, meanwhile, warn that widespread AI adoption could trigger layoffs and erode the handcrafted feel that many players cherish. There is also growing anxiety that rising hardware prices – exacerbated by AI‑driven performance demands – could turn gaming from a widespread hobby into an exclusive luxury.
If any clear sign of the future appeared on the TGS floor, it was in the AI‑centric displays. The "Selected Indie 80" – a curated group of indie titles given free demo space – was pushed out of the main exhibition hall and relegated to a hallway adjacent to the secondary convention area. In its place, an AI technology pavilion took over, featuring companies that specialize in localization, asset generation, and other AI‑driven services. Ironically, the winning entry from that indie selection, "Finding Polka," earned accolades at Gamescom and Bitsummit and is built entirely from hand‑drawn sketches, underscoring the tension between AI efficiency and traditional artistry.
Japan appears more receptive to AI than many other markets. A preliminary summary of the forthcoming 2026 Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association (CESA) report, distributed to the press on the opening day, indicated that 86 % of Japanese developers reported using some form of AI in their workflow – a sharp rise from 51 % the previous year. Numerous games on display featured AI‑generated assets, and several studios openly discussed their AI experiments. Level‑5, for example, has been vocal about its AI usage since 2023, sharing how it employs generative tools for concept art and promotional imagery.
CEO Akihiro Hino frequently discusses these practices on social media. However, a recent pre‑show showcase of Level‑5’s upcoming projects attracted intense scrutiny because AI was used not only for artwork but also for "talking‑head" video segments where an AI‑generated likeness of Hino addressed the audience.
AI‑generated imagery also appeared in trailers for "Holy Horror Mansion" – a new entry in the wildly popular "Yokai Watch" franchise – as well as in remakes of "Yokai Watch 2" and "Professor Layton and the Curious Village." The backlash was swift. Hino issued a public apology, emphasizing the human craftsmanship behind the booth and pledging to revise the studio’s AI policies. On the exhibition floor, demos for titles like "Holy Horror Mansion" and "Decapolice" (which showed a marked improvement over its 2023 presentation) were largely stripped of AI‑generated assets for playable builds, reflecting a growing sensitivity to player concerns. Beyond the AI debate, another hopeful trend emerged: the increasing integration of Japan’s traditional multimedia production‑committee model into the gaming sector.
Since the 1970s, the committee system – pioneered by Kadokawa – has allowed film studios, publishers, and other stakeholders to share risk and revenue across multiple media formats. This approach is now spilling over into games, where companies from unrelated industries invest in titles to secure cross‑promotional opportunities. Examples abound.
Convenience‑store chain Lawson routinely backs new films to secure in‑store promotions and merchandise, and similar partnerships are now forming around games. Sega, for instance, cited Disney as an inspiration for expanding its brand beyond pure gaming. Recent moves include opening flagship stores in China and Japan, featuring collaborations such as Godzilla and Evangelion characters appearing in "Sonic Crossworlds," and fashion tie‑ins with brands like Balenciaga. Sega also announced Netflix adaptations of upcoming games "Crazy Taxi" and "Stranger Than Heaven" before those titles have even launched.
Indie publishing is also benefitting from this cross‑media push. Shueisha Games, leveraging its extensive experience in manga and literature, aims to fund distinctive projects and then shepherd them into other formats.
The indie hit "Urban Myth Dissolution Center" not only sold well but also spawned manga adaptations, novels, merchandise, and even an alternate‑reality game (ARG) created by escape‑room designers SCRAP. The studio recently partnered with "Silent Hill" to produce new merchandise and a free browser spin‑off.
Other non‑gaming entities are entering the space as well. Toei Games, historically a film studio, is now developing games to create new intellectual properties that can be expanded across media. Parco, a national department‑store chain, launched Parco Games to support art‑driven indie titles, showcasing them in its retail locations through clothing lines and art exhibitions. T‑shirts for games like "Berlin Apartment" were on display at this year’s TGS, illustrating the blend of retail and interactive media.
In summary, the future of Japanese gaming will not be decided solely on the exhibition floor of Makuhari Messe. It will be shaped by how the industry monetizes its past, how it adopts and regulates AI technology, and how it leverages the production‑committee model to turn games into transmedia experiences that span movies, fashion, and food branding. The next edition of TGS hopes to finally deliver a full five‑day schedule without weather interruptions, and it will be interesting to see whether the event can move beyond nostalgia and present a clearer, more confident vision for the next thirty years of play.