Nexon, Netmarble, NC and Smilegate are all bringing what the industry calls subculture titles — character-driven games drawn in Japanese animation style and largely monetized through randomized character draws.
Nearly all are mobile-first. Not one is a packaged single-player console release.
Their Japanese hosts are moving in the opposite direction.
Capcom is showing new expansions for "Monster Hunter Wilds" and "Dragon's Dogma 2." Sega has "Crazy Taxi: World Tour," Konami is unveiling three new intellectual properties, and Square Enix has dated "Final Fantasy VII Revelation" for April 8.
All are built around console and PC gaming.
The contrast follows a disappointing Gamescom for Korean titles.
Korean games won nothing at the Gamescom awards on Aug. 28. Pearl Abyss's "Crimson Desert" was nominated for Best PC Game and Most Epic but took neither, while Krafton's "Age Twisters" lost in the Most Wholesome category.
Capcom's "Onimusha: Way of the Sword," still a week from release at the time, walked away with two awards.
In Tokyo, however, Korean publishers are playing on more familiar ground.
Nexon Games' "Blue Archive" is the template many are working from.
Japan accounted for 72 percent of the game's revenue and 34 percent of its downloads between its Japanese launch in February 2021 and August 2024, according to market tracker Sensor Tower.
Research firm Teikoku Databank counted 10 smartphone game operator bankruptcies from January through July, compared with three in all of 2025 and approaching the record 12 recorded in 2015.
The firm pointed to development budgets that now routinely run into hundreds of millions of yen and competition from Chinese and South Korean companies with what it described as "abundant financial resources and high development capabilities."
Nexon goes back to the 'Blue Archive' well
Nexon is returning to that market with "Fareidolia," developed by the same IO division behind "Blue Archive" and built on Unreal Engine 5.
Players manage a restoration center in Anima City and share an office building called Tasogare Hall with girls known as Mates.
"Fareidolia is set in Anima City, a world that resembles our own yet feels subtly different," said Cha Min-seo, the game's director.
Nexon has recreated Tasogare Hall inside the TGS exhibition halls, where visitors will get the world's first hands-on session and can play rock-paper-scissors against a character on screen.
The game is also one of the bigger leaps of faith on the show floor.
No gameplay footage has yet been released under its official name. Its first trailer arrives on Sept. 17, meaning almost everything audiences have seen so far was revealed while the title was still known by its Project RX code name.
NC's entry carries an unusually direct link to "Blue Archive."
"Astrae Oratio" is being developed by Dynamis One, founded by Park Byung-rim after he resigned in April 2024 as producer of the Japanese service for "Blue Archive" at Nexon Games.
The studio arrives in Tokyo carrying some baggage.
Its first announced game, Project KV, was scrapped in 2024 after fans accused it of resembling "Blue Archive" too closely. Seoul police raided the studio's offices in February 2025 over allegations that former Nexon Games employees had taken unpublished company material with them.
Netmarble borrows fame, then builds its own
Netmarble, the last of Korea's traditional "3-N" gaming giants alongside Nexon and NC, is bringing three titles, two of them powered by established intellectual property.
"Shangri-La Frontier: The Seven Colossi" is the first game adaptation of a manga franchise that has surpassed 1 billion views in Japan and 17 million copies in circulation.
"Solo Leveling: KARMA" takes the Korean webtoon franchise into roguelite action, adopting some of the genre's repeat-run structure without the heavier penalties associated with traditional roguelikes.
"Pearl in Blue," by contrast, is Netmarble's own creation — a romantic-comedy collectible RPG about girls who double as influencers, scheduled for release in 2027.
All three will be playable in Chiba.
Netmarble has also booked the anime voice cast of "Shangri-La Frontier" to play the demo live on Sept. 20. Taito Ban, who voices Sung Jin-woo, will race streamers k4sen and Vodka through a timed run of "Solo Leveling: KARMA" the same day.
Smilegate is showing "Mirai Vision: Unseen Future" and "Dead Account: Two Blue Flames," a roguelite centered on exorcising the social media accounts of the dead.
Masangsoft, meanwhile, is attempting to revive "King's Raid," two years after original developer Vespa collapsed.
Tokyo Game Show turns 30 this year and runs for five days for the first time, from Sept. 17 to 21 at Makuhari Messe in Chiba.
Organizer CESA said Thursday that 1,138 companies from a record 53 countries and regions will occupy 3,999 booths, making this the largest edition in the show's history. About 300,000 visitors are expected.
Three weeks ago in Cologne, Korean publishers tested their biggest games against the global PC and console industry.
In Chiba, they are making a different bet.
Cologne handed out trophies. Tokyo will test whether players reach for their phones.
AJP Takeaways
- South Korean publishers Nexon, Netmarble, NC and Smilegate will exhibit mobile-first, anime-styled collectible role-playing games at Tokyo Game Show 2026 from Sept. 17 to 21, a genre and platform shift away from the PC and console blockbusters they showed at Gamescom in August.
- No South Korean title won a Gamescom award on Aug. 28, 2026. Pearl Abyss's "Crimson Desert" lost in two categories and Krafton's "Age Twisters" lost in one, while Capcom's then-unreleased "Onimusha: Way of the Sword" took two trophies.
- Japan accounted for 8.3 percent of South Korea's $8.5 billion in game exports in 2024, down from 13.6% in 2023, according to the Korea Creative Content Agency.
- Japanese research firm Teikoku Databank recorded 10 smartphone game operator bankruptcies between January and July 2026, compared with three in all of 2025, citing rising development costs and competition from Chinese and South Korean publishers.
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