Every year Tokyo Game Show brings more to gamers and one of the main highlights for guests is of course the shopping area! This year was no exception as companies big and small came ready with exclusive deals and merchandise to help celebrate the show’s 30th anniversary. I wish I had a whole day to scour this area instead of just a few hours but I checked out what I could.
My best advice for people like myself who are strapped for time on a day visit is to try to look up whatever stores you plan on checking out at the event online ahead of time. Check out the official TGS website or the social media of your favorite companies and they will definitely announce things beforehand. Also there’s a good chance they will have deals or exclusive novelties passed out at the event so if there is stuff you were on the fence about this is usually a good place to finally buy them. Just keep in mind you will have to carry it all home with you.
The Square Enix booth was one of my first stops because I knew they had a lot of stuff on display. I had checked ahead and wasn’t too sure I wanted to really buy anything there other than for a chance to get the exclusive shopping bag but the lines were too long by the time I decided.
They did a really neat job of separating the actual shopping area and lineup by having the order system be digital only. While this meant no casual browsing at items these display cases made it really easy to see the merch up close and decide from there. This was also one of the first time I’ve seen them combine the music and general collectibles together. One of the biggest draws to the Square Enix booth is the signed albums they release each day in a limited quantity. If you have your eye on one of those you better get those early passes and line up because they are the hot items for sure.
The Konami booth was a lot smaller and humbler in comparison but still came packed with a lot of different merch from all their franchises since they were also celebrating a lot of anniversaries.
They had just one display area with almost everything there. I was tempted to get some of the Silent Hill f and Suikoden stuff but held back since nothing really stuck out to me. Though the character hangars are always a fun treat.
As I mentioned at the Square Enix booth, most places offer novelties if you spend a certain amount at the event to further entice your wallet strings loose. In this case it was spending 3,000 yen or more to get an exclusive Konami code sticker in celebration of the anniversary.
The SEGA ATLUS was very popular and a bit impossible to get better photos at since the line wrapped into the store itself. Still it made me happy to see so many people wanting to get their merch. I’m fortunate to live in Tokyo and have access to the SEGA Store where most of this year’s merch is still being sold so I wasn’t in a rush for anything.
Likewise the Capcom booth was also bumping but I have access to multiple stores in Tokyo now. Though I was really interested in all of these cool new t-shirt designs.
The Bandai Namco shop was one I had my eye on because I was searching for smaller game franchises with new merch this year like Katamari Damacy. Unfortunately I didn’t spend enough there to get the cute themed shopping bag but I got some cute stickers.
They had so much unique stuff on sale I was very tempted but I was aiming for smaller is better or useable every day items so I settled for the stickers.
While Insert Coins and Fangamer are easily accessible to our readers overseas they are not as well established in Japan so this booth was one I really had my eye on. They released new Okami merch and I had wanted to check it out in person first. The quality did not disappoint and I picked up a couple pins and keychains. The rug and Okami jackets were very tempting but also mostly sold out so I’ll have to check back online.
Ensky is another one that I usually check their online store but rarely get a chance to buy from them physically like this so I definitely wanted to get something. To my pleasant surprise they had a lot of Katamari Damacy things and they were very reasonably priced. While I skipped out on the tenugui scrolls I do think they’d make a great addition to decorating my walls.
It’s important to take a good look around since you really never know what you’ll find if you haven’t researched as much ahead of time. There are big and small booths for just about everything and stuff you may not have thought would have merch actually does.
My last stop was at Cospa which I wish I had checked out more ahead of time because they cover so many different IPs including anime that it’s a bit dizzying looking at the item lists. They had some reasonably priced shirts and stickers of things I like to collect so I picked those up while there too.
This was my total haul which was under $100 and not too bad considering how much cool stuff was on sale this year. I kept it a lot simpler this year to small items or ones I can use like the big Sonic Chao shoulder tote bag and t-shirts.
If you want to see more about Tokyo Game Show 2026 be sure to check out my other blog posts.
Did you get to attend TGS 2026? How was your experience? Did you buy anything there? What would you have liked to purchase from the stuff you saw? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Useful Links
4Gamer TGS Coverage: https://www.4gamer.net/words/001/W00124/
Dengeki Online TGS Coverage: https://dengekionline.com/article/202609/86099?pickup
