Baek Byung-yeul is a journalist at The Korea Times focused on cultural content, including films and cultural events in South Korea. You can contact him at baekby@koreatimes.co.kr to share your insights.
Korea's biggest game expo, G-STAR, returns at full scale
Visitors enter the BEXCO convention center in Busan, Thursday, where this year's G-STAR game expo is being held. Korea Times photo by Baek Byung-yeul
By Baek Byung-yeul
By Baek Byung-yeul
BUSAN ― The G-STAR game industry show returned in a full-scale offline format to the southern port city on Thursday, with companies here and abroad pinning hopes that the country's largest game expo might be able to create momentum for the struggling game industry.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the annual game-related show was held online in 2020 and in a hybrid offline and online format last year. On the first day of the four-day event, a large crowd gathered at the BEXCO convention center, signaling their eager anticipation of the event.
The organizing committee said that 987 companies from 43 countries joined this year's G-STAR, which is more than double the number at last year's event. This year's event, comprised of business-to-customer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) sections, will run until Sunday. The event is also drawing attention to whether it can exceed 244,000 visitors, the record set at the 2019 event.
Visitors line up to try out Nexon's new games during the G-STAR game expo at the BEXCO convention center in Busan, Thursday. Korea Times photo by Baek Byung-yeul
Among the participating companies, Nexon was by far the most eye-catching at the game show. The company, which returned to the G-STAR after a four-year hiatus, occupies the largest promotional space in the show.
The game company installed 560 devices so that visitors can try out new games such as "Mabinogi Mobile," a role-playing game for mobile platforms, "The First Descendant," a shooting and role-playing game for PCs and consoles, "Kartrider: Drift," a racing game for PCs and consoles, and "Dave the Diver," an adventure game for PCs and Nintendo Switch.
Netmarble also drew attention from gamers who want to experience its new games such as “Solo Leveling,” a fantasy novel-based action game, and other new games such as “Arthdal Chronicles” and “Paragon: The Overprime.”
Visitors to Netmarble's exhibition space play the new games of the game company during the G-STAR game expo at the BEXCO convention center in Busan, Thursday. Korea Times photo by Baek Byung-yeul
Despite the event kicking off in the middle of the week, the game expo has notable drawn a particularly large number of teenagers.
“I live in Busan and am 17 years old. I visited the G-STAR with my friends. Today is a day off because the 'suneung' (Korean college entrance exam) is held today,” a student said in front of Netmarble's booth. Like him, many teenagers were at the exhibition venue as they didn't have school Thursday due to the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) being administered in middle and high schools nationwide.
A mother said that her 11-year-old son wanted to attend G-STAR, so she came to Busan by train from Seoul with him. “My child likes to play games, but I never imagined this event would be such a big one. I feel good because my son likes it,” the mother said.
Strengthened safety measures
As G-STAR is one of the first large-scale events after the Itaewon crowd crush disaster in Seoul on Oct. 29, the organizing committee seemed to be putting extra effort into ensuring safety with the deployment of a total of 550 safety staff members and police officers throughout the venue.
At the event venue, these safety personnel were managing public safety by, for example, trying to reduce the density of people at the event by securing separate waiting spaces in front of the booths of the participating companies.