The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) announced on the 27th that they completed the operation of the Korean joint pavilion at the ‘Tokyo Game Show (TGS) 2023’ held in Japan from the 21st to the 24th.
TGS 2023 is Asia’s most significant game show, where Japanese and global game companies present a variety of new games. This year, under the slogan ‘Games move, the world changes,’ many games on various platforms, including console, mobile, PC, VR, and AR, were introduced. The offline exhibition resumed three years after COVID-19 and was held on the most enormous scale ever, with 770 participating companies and 2,684 exhibition booths.
KOCCA operated a Korean joint pavilion throughout the entire TGS 2023 event and promoted K-games’ excellence. ▲Visits to local companies (Cygames and Aniplex) ▲Korea-Japan company networking exchange meeting ▲Business support programs such as global expansion and investment consulting, ▲Content demonstration ▲Stamp rally event ▲Capsule drawing event ▲Cosplay, and other abundant events for visitors. All participants in the event were satisfied.
There are a total of 25 participating companies. The PC/online sector is ▲Flying Stone ▲Kiwi Works ▲Nimble Neuron, and the PC/console sector is ▲Olaf Games ▲Code Name Bomb ▲Egg Tart ▲Exrix ▲Urban Wolf Games ▲Milestone Games ▲Sunny Side Up ▲Newcore ▲Alien Abduction Operation ▲Odyssey ▲Tripal Games ▲Wonder Potion participated.
In the mobile field, ▲3F Factory ▲Bipex ▲Cplay ▲Shine Games ▲Susu Soft ▲Soul Games ▲Endorphin Connect ▲Medipia ▲Toast participated, and in the VR/AR field, ▲Two Hands Interactive participated and welcomed Japanese visitors.
Nimble Neuron held a cosplay photo event during the B2C period with a model cosplaying the character ‘Emma’ from its game ‘Eternal Return,’ attracting visitors’ attention. Endorphin Connect invited author Mi-ae, the original author of the game ‘Ugly Hood: Puzzle Defense,’ and received a great response from fans of the original work and local game fans who came from Korea to meet author Mi-ae.
For successful business matching, KOCCA secured buyers in advance for each company, including publishing, investment, strategic partnerships, and marketing. As a result, the number of consultations was approximately 282, and the consultation amount was 123.29 million dollars (about 166.4415 billion Korean Won), proving local interest in K-games.
In particular, ▲ Taito, which operates Japan’s most significant game center ▲ Shochiku, is expanding its business into not only Kabuki, movies, and animation but also recent games ▲ Kodansha, which owns various IPs such as ‘The Seven Deadly Sins’ ▲ Owns and publishes the ‘Ark of the Sun’ series Hypergriff, which is investing ▲’Lies of P’ Japanese publisher Happynet and others visited the publisher and investment company and held consultations with domestic companies.
KOCCA also created a meeting place for participating companies and local game industry officials to promote active exchange between Korea and Japan. We visited Cygames, a Japanese game company famous for ‘Uma Musume’ and ‘Granblue Fantasy,’ and discussed business cooperation plans. At the Korea-Japan networking exchange held at the Konjinwon Japan Business Center, about 100 industry officials attended and had time for business exchange.
The Korean joint pavilion participating games were also introduced on YouTube by large Japanese game media companies Forgamer and Denpamico Gamer and local entertainment information media Dengeki Online. Gamer and Dengeki Online praised the gameplay of Egg Tart’s ‘Metal Suit,’ the unique and exciting story development of ‘Pig Romance,’ an alien abduction operation, and the stylish action of New Core’s ‘Devil Within Satgat.’
“At this year’s Tokyo Game Show, which was held normally after COVID-19, we could feel the strong interest as more visitors than before visited the Korean joint pavilion,” said Yoo Hyeon-seok, vice president of the Korea Contribution Center. “Games account for 70% of Korea’s content industry exports.” -As it is content, in addition to participating in world-class game shows, we will continue to diversify our support for developing overseas markets for game content, such as discovering needs in emerging markets, supporting global investment attraction, and spreading K-culture using game IP, so that excellent domestic small and medium-sized and indie games can be promoted globally. “I will be a guide to advancement,” he said.
Meanwhile, KOCCA plans to continue supporting K-games’ overseas expansion by hosting the ‘K-Content Expo in UAE’ in Dubai in November. In 2024, we plan to increase the export support budget by about 5 billion won to 13.3 billion won, expand export support companies and scale of support, including direct overseas services, and expand participation in overseas exhibition markets, including emerging markets.
