Tokyo Game Show 2025: A Celebration of Gaming with Surprises
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Tokyo Game Show 2025 was a strange one. Held over four days in September at Makuhari Messe in Chiba, this year’s show lacked a major tentpole game to dominate the lineup. But there were strong offerings from Japanese, Chinese, and Western game companies. From Resident Evil Requiem to Ananta to Battlefield 6, TGS offered plenty of great new titles to get excited about.
TGS is one of my favorite annual game expos.Always crackling with energy, the two business days and two public days feel like a true celebration of gaming ー with tons to play, immersive booths, top-level cosplayers, and gamers of all generations coming together in the sweaty Makuhari Messe halls.
For us at IGN Japan, TGS meant four days and over 20 hours of real-time livestreamed coverage from the show floor, plus written impressions and gameplay videos of dozens of games. And as interest grows around the world in games from Japan and Asia,we were joined by colleagues from IGN editions in the United States,China,Korea,Brazil,France and Germany. Our little studio space was packed with busy journalists.
Popular Games
One of the moast popular games for our audience was Ananta. This upcoming game from Chinese publisher NetEase blends the open-world freedom of Grand Theft Auto with the fun traversal and combat of Insomniac’s Spider-Man games. But it incorporates a gorgeous anime visual style that boasts slick animation, OTT set pieces and madcap humor.
The demo I played at Ananta’s crowded TGS booth was insanely exciting. And when we invited the game developers to join us on our TGS livestream for an on-air playthrough,we got our highest concurrent viewership numbers of the whole week.
The long-awaited Grand Theft Auto VI is slated for a May 26, 2026 release, and Ananta for mid-2026. The latter game will be wholly free to play, though, so it will be engaging to see how the two open-world behemoths square up next year.
Capcom Hits
Capcom brought several of the show’s top hitters, with games like Resident Evil Requiem, Pragmata, Onimusha: Way of the Sword and Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection taking top billing on the Osaka giant’s booth.I was notably impressed by my hands-on time with the Switch 2 version of Requiem,which looks as fantastic on Nintendo’s new handheld as it does on PlayStation 5.
But for us, the best-performing Capcom game was Street fighter 6, with our gameplay video featuring newly added character C.Viper becoming our most-viewed standalone video of TGS.
## Japan’s Gaming Renaissance: from Forza Horizon to Nioh 3
For years, gamers have clamored for more titles set in Japan. The recent release of *Assassin’s Creed Shadows*, set in Japan, which fans have been requesting for years. Indeed, for all the drama surrounding *Assassin’s Creed Shadows’* release earlier this year, Japan is still a hot setting for games.
And since each new entry never fails to offer exhilarating racing through the landscapes of it’s host country, from Australia to the united Kingdom to Mexico, a Japan-based *Forza Horizon* game is an exciting prospect. Details are still scarce, but you can expect a mix of countryside roads, landmarks like Mount Fuji, and *Tokyo Drift*-style action through busy city streets.
Also, despite being made by Microsoft, the game will be released not only on Xbox and PC, but also PlayStation 5. Players in Japan are holding their breath for a Switch 2 version. But whatever happens, this will likely be the biggest entry in the series to date.
We also saw more conventional shooter games then usual at TGS this year, with Electronic Arts showcasing its upcoming Battlefield 6 and Battlestate Games showing a new update for its popular tactical shooter Escape from Tarkov. Both series have a strong fan base in Japan.
Oh yeah, and once again the Love and Deepspace booth offered gamers a chance to meet the game’s hunky boyfriends face to face, proving just as outrageously popular as it was at gamescom and other overseas events.
And as usual, the Indie Game Area provided a chance to find your new favorite game.
Highlights for me this year included No Straight Roads 2, a colorful sequel to the music-based action game from 2020; Shrink Rooms, a fiendishly arduous puzzle game dripping in dark humor; motorslice, a platform-action game whose inventive boss battles borrow heavily from Shadow of the Colossus; Kotama&Academy Citadel, a fast-tempo Metroidvania with cool sci-fi design; and Thanks, Light, a smart puzzle-platform game where players manipulate light sources to progress through the darkness. and there were way too many more to mention.
Watch For extra day in 2026
TGS had a record number of exhibitors this year, with 1,136 c