G-Star Draws 197,000 Visitors... Signals Change in 'K-Game'

On the morning of the 17th, hundreds of visitors are waiting to enter 'G-Star 2023' at BEXCO in Busan.

South Korea's largest game exhibition, 'G-STAR 2023,' concluded its four-day grand journey. This year, with about 200,000 visitors, domestic game companies announced changes at G-STAR.

The G-STAR Organizing Committee announced that 197,000 people visited this year's event held in Busan from the 16th to the 19th. Held on the largest scale ever with 3,328 booths from 42 countries, the event featured major game companies including main sponsor Wemade, Google Korea, Netmarble, NCSoft, Webzen, Smilegate RPG, and Krafton.

The total number of visitors over the four days was higher than the 184,000 in the previous event but lower than the record 240,000 in 2019. The unique viewers of the online broadcast 'G-STAR TV' conducted by the organizing committee during the event totaled 944,000 over four days. Additionally, 8,000 people attended the G-STAR Conference (G-CON), which was held in 41 sessions.

This year’s G-STAR showcased a large number of game types that domestic game companies had not presented before. Introducing games with unique platforms and genres, it captured the attention of visitors.

Kim Taek-jin, CEO of NCSoft, visited the NC booth at 'G-Star 2023' on the 16th.

NCSoft, participating in G-STAR for the first time in eight years, set up demonstration spaces for three new titles: PC and console MMO shooter ‘Project LLL,’ mobile, PC, and console brawler action ‘Battlecrush,’ and mobile and PC collectible RPG ‘Project BSS.’ The development teams of the main exhibited titles also introduced the demo builds in person. NCSoft CEO Kim Taek-jin visited the site from the day before the opening to personally inspect the booth and raise expectations for the new releases.

Netmarble welcomed fans with various games including MMORPG ‘RF Online Next,’ collectible RPG ‘Demis Reborn,’ and open-world adventure RPG ‘The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin.’ Krafton received positive responses by showcasing the new title ‘Dark and Darker Mobile’ and the PC-based life simulation game ‘Enjoy.’ Enjoy is a life simulation game where users become gods within the game, changing everything as they wish and experiencing new stories through various forms of life. It has a completely different atmosphere from their flagship first-person shooter game ‘Battlegrounds.’

Netmarble 'G-STAR 2023' Booth On-site Photos

Smilegate RPG, the developer of ‘Lost Ark,’ unveiled the new title ‘Lost Ark Mobile’ for the first time. Particularly, the VR (virtual reality) content demonstration zone for Lost Ark Mobile attracted much attention. This surprise reveal is linked with Lost Ark Mobile and is expected to be utilized in various ways.

Wemade, participating again as the main sponsor this year following last year, introduced ‘Legend of Mir,’ another large-scale MMORPG following ‘Night Crow,’ and the new baseball game ‘Fantastic4 Baseball’ for the first time.

An 'open run' also appeared for visitors eager to experience new titles even a little earlier. Every day during G-STAR, hundreds of visitors lined up 2 to 3 hours before the entrance opened. In the case of ‘Lost Ark Mobile,’ some had to wait up to 3 hours to try the demo.

The B2B hall, located on the third floor of BEXCO’s second exhibition center, operated for three days from the 16th to the 18th, with 2,317 paid buyers visiting.

Cosplay models 'Song Jua' and 'Narittaeng' are showcasing characters from 'Dark and Darker Mobile' at the Krafton booth.

The G-STAR Conference ‘G-CON’ featured 41 sessions, including 4 keynotes and 37 general sessions across 3 tracks, with about 8,000 attendees. The keynote sessions included four speakers: Shinji Mikami, the ‘master’ and father of the ‘Resident Evil’ series; Geum Gang-seon, director of ‘Lost Ark,’ nicknamed ‘Light Gang-seon’; Ha Jung-woo, head of Naver Cloud and an AI expert; and Jang Hyun-guk, CEO of Wemade, a leader in the blockchain ecosystem who achieved remarkable success with ‘Night Crow.’

On the closing day, the 19th, at 8 p.m., the ‘Wemade Festive Night’ was held around Haeundae Plaza and the beach area.

Kang Shin-cheol, chairman of the G-STAR Organizing Committee, said, “I thank all participating companies and related organizations who actively cooperated to ensure that ‘G-STAR’ could be successfully held in a safe environment,” and added, “To meet the expectations of visitors who always love and come to G-STAR, we will actively reflect industry and cultural trends and strive even harder to become a comprehensive game culture festival that embraces both games and culture.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.