Tokyo Game Show kicks off today, and it’s going big for its 30th birthday. For the first time ever, it runs for five days (so pack comfy shoes if you’re heading over).
Organisers reckon around 300,000 people will rock up to Makuhari Messe in Chiba, with roughly 3,500 booths to get through. That’s a lot of queueing for demos!
Thursday and Friday are business days. The public gets in from Saturday 19 to Monday 21 September, and that Monday is a public holiday in Japan.
Why the extra day? TGS says public days have hit close to 100,000 visitors a day, which meant plenty of people left without playing what they came for. One more public day spreads the crowd out.
So what’s on the floor? Plenty.
Capcom has Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance, Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen and Mega Man: Dual Override on show. Not a bad spread at all.
Konami is streaming Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse, with the Japanese voices of Trevor Belmont and Death playing it for the very first time. There’s also a Silent Hill: Townfall talk with series producer Motoi Okamoto, with the game’s launch just around the corner.
Square Enix is bringing Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts to the show. Over in the indie area, Gravity Game Arise will debut new gameplay from its Ragnarok console project.
Xbox is turning up in a big way too, marking 25 years of play.
Minecraft Dungeons II gets its first hands-on in Japan, ahead of its 29 September launch. It’s on Game Pass from day one.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 multiplayer is playable as well, at Xbox partner Happinet’s booth, before the game launches on 23 October.
The big one for us back home is the Xbox Tokyo Game Show Broadcast. It goes live at 8pm AEST tonight (7pm in Tokyo), hosted by Misuzu Araki.
You can catch it on Xbox’s YouTube and Twitch channels, or on the official TGS YouTube channel. It’ll have American Sign Language and English audio description live, with more languages added afterwards.
Xbox has promised TGS-exclusive content and new gameplay, but it hasn’t locked in a full lineup. So don’t go betting the house on surprise reveals (we’ve all been burnt before).
Got kids? The free Family Game Park is running at TKP Tokyo Bay Makuhari Hall for children up to junior high school age and their guardians.
Can’t make it to Japan this week? No stress. The show runs in a hybrid format, so plenty of it streams online, and publishers like Capcom and Konami have their own TGS pages with streams lined up.
Keep an eye on those if a particular series is your thing.
Here’s the need-to-know:
What: Tokyo Game Show 2026, the 30th anniversary edition
When: 17 to 21 September (public days 19 to 21)
Hours: Public days 9:30am to 5pm, closing at 4pm on Monday (Japan time)
Where: Makuhari Messe, Chiba, Japan
Watch: Xbox Tokyo Game Show Broadcast, 8pm AEST tonight
Five days, thousands of booths and a showcase in prime time. Grab a snack, find a comfy spot and tune in tonight!
Source: Tokyo Game Show · Xbox Wire · Capcom · Konami