– The most significant event ever, with 1,037 companies from 42 countries and 3,328 booths.
– The best speaker lineup ever, raising expectations for the G-Star Conference
– To support the indie game industry, strengthen the G-Star Indie Showcase
‘G-Star 2023 (Game Show and Trade, All Round 2023)’, an international game exhibition examining the gaming industry’s past, present, and future, will conclude at BEXCO, Busan, on Thursday, November 16.
‘G-STAR 2023’, which celebrated its 19th anniversary this year, is hosted by the Korea Game Industry Association (K-GAMES) and co-hosted by the G-STAR Organizing Committee and Busan Information Industry Promotion Agency and will be held from Thursday, November 16 to Sunday, November 19. It is held daily.
At the opening ceremony, Kang Shin-cheol, chairman of the G-STAR Organizing Committee, and representatives from this year’s G-STAR participating companies and related organizations are expected to attend the event and celebrate the successful hosting of ‘G-STAR 2023’.
■ ‘G-STAR 2023’ achieves the most significant scale ever
This year’s ‘G-STAR’ will be held with 3,328 booths, a 12.9% increase from the previous year (2,947 booths), with 1,037 companies from 42 countries participating, surpassing the previous most significant scale in 2019 (3,208 booths) and recording the highest performance ever.
Kang Shin-cheol, Chairman of the G-Star Organizing Committee, said, “This year’s ‘G-Star’ has sold out of the large BTC booths available for application at the first exhibition hall on the day of the Super Early Bird application, and the small booths are also closed early at the end of July regardless of the BTC and BTB halls, so it is related to the game. “The industry’s interest led to the result of being the largest scale,” he said. “We sincerely thank the gaming industry for its continued support and interest in ‘G-Star.’ We will do our best to ensure everyone can enjoy the gaming culture festival in a safe environment over the four days.” “I will do my best,” he said.
■ G-Star Indie Showcase, on Offline simultaneous progress
The G-Star Indie Showcase will be expanded to establish a practical support environment for the indie game industry.
This year, in collaboration with Stove Indie, an indie game platform, the ‘G-Star Indie Showcase Powered by Stove Indie’ booth was set up in the BTC Hall on the first floor of Exhibition Hall 2. ‘One Store’ will join as a mobile partner and showcase 40 excellent indie games selected through an online selection contest in which general users played and voted (a total of 18,095 votes) at this G-Star Indie Showcase.
G-STAR Indie Showcase provides a simple BTC exhibition experience, a BTB space and lounge, business consultation with Smilegate Group experts, exhibition device support, and a developer lounge, significantly strengthening practical help for the indie game industry. In addition, visitors can enjoy excellent indie games and various events and content through a stamp rally-type event.
In addition, a special broadcast will be held through ‘G-Star TV’ from November 16th to 18th, where all 40 exhibition works can be viewed live online, and the ‘G-Star Indie Awards (GIA)’ will be held on the morning of November 19th. The winning works will receive preferential benefits from launching marketing and support programs and small prizes each platform sponsor provides.
Gstar TV : https://www.twitch.tv/gstar
■ BTC Hall expands outdoor exhibitions and provides various attractions
G-STAR BTC Hall not only occupies the entire BEXCO Exhibition Hall 1 and the entire first floor of Exhibition Hall 2, but the scale of the outdoor exhibition, which was temporarily reduced last year, has been significantly expanded.
Wemade, Google Play, NCSoft, Netmarble, Smilegate RPG, Inven, Krafton, and Epic Games are participating in the first exhibition hall, and Webzen, New Normal Soft, Gravity, AMD, POW Games, and Big Games are on the first floor of the second exhibition hall. Game Studio, Haoplay, Hypergriff, Kuro Games, and SHUEISHA GAMES set up exhibition booths.
In addition, the outdoor exhibition booths of Wemade, Google Play, Webzen, HaoPlay, Sega Publishing Korea, and Hibro are set up in front of the first exhibition hall, and the outdoor exhibition booths of Bandai Namco Entertainment Korea are set up in the outdoor parking lot, providing various events and attractions to visitors. I plan to do it.
■ BTB Hall, expansion of participating companies, and continued increase in buyers
The BTB pavilion will be held on the 3rd floor of BEXCO’s 2nd exhibition hall and will consist of 896 booths, which is an increase in size compared to last year (847 booths).
Domestic companies include Wemade, Smilegate Holdings, Kakao Games, Pearl Abyss, Gravity, Naver Cloud, Nettension, NHN, Dragonfly, Busan Information Industry Promotion Agency, Daejeon Information Culture Industry Promotion Agency, Daegu Digital Innovation Promotion Agency, Incheon Techno Park, etc. Several small and medium-sized enterprises participated through the organization’s joint pavilion. Overseas companies such as Xsolla, the Canadian Embassy, the Australian Embassy, Coda Payments, and Mistplay organized exhibition booths.
In addition, 896 companies from 42 countries, including offline and online, are participating in live business matching (online), and the number of participating companies is expected to increase further depending on the number of on-site registrations added during the G-Star event.
■ G-Star Conference (G-CON), the best speaker lineup ever
G-CON 2023, which achieved record-breaking results last year and has established itself as a key side event of G-Star, will be held on the first floor of the BEXCO Convention Hall for two days from Thursday, November 16 to Friday, November 17.
G-CON 2023, which will be held as G-STAR’s exclusive conference, will welcome the audience with a spectacular and well-organized lineup that surpasses last year’s all-time best lineup. We plan to increase audience satisfaction through the composition of topics in various areas, such as AI and comics, which are closely related to the gaming industry, and directors of multiple games considered the best works of the year.
In the opening speech on the first day, Director Geum Kang-seon, who is so famous and renowned as a Korean developer that he is nicknamed ‘Light’ Kang-seon, will explain the story behind the 12-year development. In the keynote on the first day, Naver Cloud Center Director Ha Jeong-woo will participate as a speaker on the utility of AI, which is currently having the most significant influence on the content industry and games. In the opening speech on the second day, Jang Hyun-guk, CEO of Wemade, one of the leaders in the blockchain ecosystem, spoke on the topic of innovative in-game content and platforms, and in the keynote speech, the father of the series and a ‘master’ representing the horror game genre. Shinji Mikami will give the lecture.
This year’s conference featured many famous directors representing Japan and the Western world, including ‘Shuhei Yoshida,’ ‘Kazuhiko Torishima,’ ‘Yoko Taro,’ ‘Hiroyuki Sakamoto,’ ‘Eric Batiza,’ ‘John Johannes, and ‘Patrice Desallets.’ is scheduled to participate as a speaker.
■ Expansion of the schedule of side events within BEXCO, such as the G-Star Subculture Game Festival
This year, G-Star offers visitors more attractions, amenities, and various events in addition to the exhibition hall and outdoors.
The ‘G-Star Subculture Game Festival,’ which was introduced to provide visitors with more things to see, participation opportunities, and viewing convenience, will run for four days, the same as the BTC exhibition period, on the 3rd floor of the convention hall (Grand Ballroom) and outdoors.
Special programs and events, such as talk shows and performances, are constantly operated using the G-Star TV stage installed in the Grand Ballroom and the festival-specific stage, and a goods market and exhibition zone are also organized. Separate changing facilities for men and women and digital lockers for luggage storage will be installed in the 3rd-floor lobby for the convenience of visitors and cosplayers, and a character wrapping vehicle photo zone (Itasha Zone) will also be operated outdoors near the convention hall.
In addition, the ‘FC PRO Festival’ held by Nexon Korea and Electronics Arts (from now on EA) will be held four days from Thursday, November 16th to Sunday, November 19th at BEXCO Auditorium. We plan to conduct a new competition with influencers and general users on a global basis and introduce an international, national contest to provide a wealth of attractions.
■ Special events taking place throughout Busan, such as ‘Wemade Festive Night’ and ‘G-Star Cup Fighters Spirit 2023’
In addition to BEXCO, special events will be prepared utilizing major regions of Busan.
Wemade, the main sponsor of ‘G-Star 2023’, will hold the ‘Wemade Festive Night,’ which will feature a lighting drone show and fireworks finale in the Haeundae Plaza and beach area for about 30 minutes from 8 PM on the 18th (Saturday). Eight hundred firework drones will be mobilized for this event to provide a unique experience to G-STAR visitors. A blogging event will also be held from 6 p.m., where fish cake skewers will be provided to the first 1,000 people upon filling and returning the trash.
In addition, ‘G-Star Cup Fighters Spirit 2023’ will be held at the Busan Esports Stadium in Seomyeon, Busan, as a comprehensive fighting game competition in five events over two days from Saturday, November 18 to Sunday, November 19. Many famous fighting game professional gamers from home and abroad, including Hangzhou Asian Games gold medalist Kim Kwan-woo, will participate, leading to exciting matches and various on-site events.
