GTMF 2026 Sets Osaka And Tokyo Dates For Its 21st Edition
The Game Tools & Middleware Forum 2026 will run on December 2 at the Knowledge Capital Congres Convention Center in Osaka and on December 8 at Akihabara UDX in Tokyo, organized by Aidea and CRI Middleware.
2 sources 54m ago
Reporting from 2 sources: Game Spark, GameBusiness.jp.
Why it matters
The forum's own session list now treats compliance, payment infrastructure and AI agent tooling as core game development topics alongside engines, which is a different emphasis from the middleware demonstrations the event started with in 2003.
Key Facts
- GTMF 2026 runs on December 2 in Osaka and December 8 in Tokyo, with doors at 9:30, sessions from 10:00 and booths from 11:00.
- The Game Tools & Middleware Forum began on February 7, 2003, in Ochanomizu with seven participating companies.
- GTMF 2026 is the 21st edition of the event, organized by Aidea and CRI Middleware.
- Admission to GTMF 2026 is free and advance registration is required for exhibits and sessions.
The event began on February 7, 2003, as Game Tools & Middleware Forum 2003 Winter in Ochanomizu, Tokyo, with seven participating companies. It reaches its 21st edition with the 2026 run. Between 2020 and 2022 the forum was suspended because of the novel coronavirus, and it resumed on June 30, 2023, in Osaka and July 4 in Tokyo. Admission is free at both venues, with advance registration required for exhibits and sessions; doors open at 9:30, sessions start at 10:00 and booths at 11:00, and attendees may enter and leave midway. GTMF 2026 publishes a sponsor list running from Pearl sponsors k-ID, Silicon Studio and Hi3D down to logo sponsors pixiv and Braze.
Silicon Studio plans to bring the latest features of Silicon Studio Bone Dynamics, its tool for animating swaying hair and clothing, which the company says was built from feedback from the field. k-ID takes the other end of the problem: compliance and legal work that localization does not cover when a game ships globally. Those two booths sum up the range of a forum that opened in 2003 with seven companies while the PS2 and GameCube were current hardware.
The session slate is where the shift shows. Epic Games Japan is scheduled to give a summary of publicly available UE5 and UE6 information. Meshy presents production examples of 3D generative AI. Game Server Services covers network features built with GS2-Studio and Claude Code. Sony demonstrates its Gaming Virtualizer by 360 Reality Audio, and Audiokinetic presents Wwise features including Tempest 3D AudioTech. Attendance is free at both venues and requires advance sign-up.
- Pearl Sponsor: k-ID, Silicon Studio, Hi3D: Silicon Studio shows Bone Dynamics; k-ID focuses on global compliance
- Gold Sponsor: Incredibuild Japan, Audiokinetic, Game Server Services, Khronos Group, ThinkingAI, Speech Graphics, Sony, SoftBank, Hitachi Solutions Technology, Meshy AI, Yamaha
- Silver Sponsor: SB Payment Service, Geolocation Technology, Spark, Dynacomware, Diarkis, Toshiba, Toyo Technica, Havok, Photon
- Logo Sponsor: pixiv, Braze
- Organizing Committee: Aidea, CRI Middleware
Written with AI by Yomimono from the 2 cited sources below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited. See our editorial policy.
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Sources
- Game Spark 20年以上続く「GTMF」って、そもそもどんなイベント？ゲーム業界の“先端技術と企業が繋がる”場
- GameBusiness.jp 20年以上続く「GTMF」って、そもそもどんなイベント？ゲーム業界の“先端技術と企業が繋がる”場