Tokyo Game Show’s 30th anniversary badged itself as “the longest five days of nonstop play”, a showcase of the future of gaming. In reality, the event in Japan’s largest gaming convention center, Makuhari Messe, ended after only four, the final day canceled due to the risk of an oncoming typhoon, and seemed to be mightily obsessed with the past, only otherwise hinting towards a more uncertain future.
The games industry is in flux, for all that the success of Nintendo Switch 2 and the growth of PC gaming may have helped to paper over the cracks – both globally and particularly in Japan, where those platforms account for the majority of recent growth. The overwhelming presence of free-to-play and mobile gaming at last year’s event may have been not quite so prominent this year, with a notable absence of Chinese companies absent amidst political tension between the countries, but it was hard to get a clear vision of what future the industry wished to assert when much of the event felt dominated by the figures of the past.
At SEGA’s booth, arguably more prominent than new IP Stranger Than Heaven from Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios, was the upcoming remake of Persona 4 Golden. DJs and cosplay dancers regularly took the stage and its demo was by far the most popular of the booth. Square Enix had just two games to show this year: the finale of their Final Fantasy VII remake trilogy with the meteor and Sephiroth dominating every visual of the booth, and Final Fantasy Resonance, a HD-2D entry featuring figures from across franchise history. Most of Capcom’s booth space was taken up by demo kiosks for the new expansion to Monster Hunter Wilds, although a lot of space was dedicated to Switch 2 ports of Resident Evil 2, 3 and 4, along with a new Mega Man title.
Of the major developers at this year’s show, only Bandai Namco and Konami centered new titles. The former with a new Gundam title standing alongside anime tie-in games and Ace Combat 8, while the latter had not just a new Castlevania in a radically-different art style, but (non-playable) showcases of new IPs Rhapsody in Scarlet and Rev:Noir, alongside Silent Hill Townfall.
There are a few reasons for this. TGS is hosted in September, which was dominated this year by new game releases as many companies choose to avoid Grand Theft Auto 6 in November. Even without a playable demo, a chance to see the recent Netflix showcase in an immersive haptic-enhanced theater prompted stampedes on public days, albeit partially influenced by the free GTA-themed PlayStation t-shirt attendees would receive for watching it.
While this was the most extreme example, the biggest draws for “nonstop play” were known quantities, with very little indication of what the next 30 years of gaming would contain. Except for one, inescapable, encroaching piece of technology rapidly shaping the games industry: generative AI. Developers claim it offers enhancements to coding and allows for quick generation of smaller ideas and assets that save costs. Others worry about the possibility of it causing layoffs. Players want to see human craft, and have been vocally critical of it being supplanted. Then there’s the worry that price increases for current and future hardware could turn a pricey hobby into an unaffordable luxury.
Nevertheless, if we got any glimpse into the future on the TGS show floor, it was care of AI. The Selected Indie 80, a curated collection of indies given free demo space, was once again jettisoned from the main hall of the show to the hallways above the secondary convention area, with the space taken up by an AI technology pavilion of companies showcasing localization and asset services. (Ironically, the winning game from the selection, Finding Polka, which also won awards at Gamescom and Bitsummit, is defined by its use of hand-drawn sketches for all its assets.)
Support for generative AI in Japan is higher than in many other countries. In a preliminary summary of the upcoming 2026 Computer Entertainment Supplier’s Association (CESA) Report handed to the media on the opening day of this year’s event, 86% of developers self-reported that they used AI tools of some sort in their work, a substantial increase from the 51% of last year. A number of games on show at the event, whether in promotional material or the assets themselves, featured heavy use of AI assets. Then there’s the case of Level-5.
The firm have been vocal about their usage in recent years, openly discussing the ways they have used AI generation in conceptualization for promotional imagery as far back as 2023. CEO Akihiro Hino has regularly talked about it on social media. A recent showcase of their upcoming projects ahead of this year’s event underwent significant scrutiny both inside and outside Japan for its prominent use of AI both in ‘talking-head’ segments introducing their games (where an AI-generated image of Akihiro Hino would talk to the audience), and in trailers.
AI imagery was spotted in trailers for Holy Horror Mansion, a new title associated with their mega-popular Yokai Watch franchise, as well as remakes for Yokai Watch 2 and Professor Layton and the Curious Village. The public reaction was extreme enough that Hino personally apologized on social media and made repeated emphasis of the human craft in the creation of their TGS booth (also initially conceptualized with AI) and promising reform in how they use the technology in future.
On the show floor, the influence was noticeable in demos for games like Holy Horror Mansion and Decapolice (especially compared to that game’s previous showcase at TGS 2023), though in most cases they did, as stated, remove any assets generated with AI from playable builds. The backlash highlights the fear that many have for AI’s potential impact on the future of games that goes beyond these most visible extremes.
There is one other, more hopeful path for the future that made its fledgling appearance this year. Japanese entertainment beyond gaming has long been defined by a multimedia strategy and the production committee system, pioneered in the 1970s in film by KADOKAWA but standing nowadays as one of the most prominent ways major studios and companies produce entertainment. To reduce and spread risk on new projects and encourage the continued development of new ideas, many companies will partner together to form a committee that will support development and own rights to produce works in their respective fields. Food production companies may support a piece of media in order to create collaborations upon its release; other firms may do so for merchandising, adaptations into new mediums.
It’s for this reason a few surprising companies have significant stakes in the modern landscape of filmmaking – convenience store chain Lawson often support new films with the understanding they can run promotions and sell new merchandise through their stores, for example. Gaming has previously been immune to this, but is increasingly being integrated into this system. Exit 8 was one of the highest-grossing films of 2025 in Japan, and started life as an indie game. In a recent interview with Japanese business newspaper Nikkei, SEGA said it was taking inspiration from Disney to push the company into multimedia ventures led by films like Sonic the Hedgehog and Angry Birds, but including the recent opening of stores in China and Japan, the inclusion of Godzilla and characters from Evangelion in Sonic Crossworlds, and collaborations with fashion brands like Balenciaga. They also announced Netflix adaptations of upcoming titles Crazy Taxi and Stranger Than Heaven before the games even hit store shelves.
In the indie scene, major new publishers are increasingly investing in the space, and their prominence and ambition marks a more hopeful direction for games. Shueisha Games have the explicit goal of not just funding unique projects, but using their wealth of experience beyond games to support successful projects further. Urban Myth Dissolution Center was one of the best-selling Japanese indie games of last year and has gone on to see adaptations into manga and novels, merchandising, and even an ARG from escape game room creative group SCRAP. Most recently, they partnered with Silent Hill f for new merchandise and a free spin-off browser game.
Toei Games have moved from films into games with the hope of supporting new IP they can expand, while PARCO Games was founded by the titular national chain of department stores that already develop theater and work with brands on fashion and art collaborations. The company is looking to support indies with an art-driven label, and feature them in their stores through clothing and art showcases. T-shirts for a number of their titles such as Berlin Apartment were already on display at this year’s event.
The future of gaming in Japan exists beyond this show floor. It’s how the past can be monetized, it’s in the AI technologies developed by foreign tech giants, it’s in the ways these games on the floor can fill movie screens and fashion runways. Next year, the event will try again to run its first five-day showcase, hopefully without a typhoon scuppering plans as it welcomes the next 30 years of play. Yet the decisions and greatest signs for the future of gaming in Japan likely sit many miles away from the grandiose halls of Makuhari Messe.