‘G-STAR 2024’, hosted by the Korea Game Industry Association (K-GAMES) and co-hosted by the G-STAR Organizing Committee and the Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency, was held at BEXCO in Busan from Thursday, November 14, to Sunday, November 17.
This year, following last year, the exhibition was held on the most enormous scale ever, with 3,359 booths. In line with the expanded scale, new products and content from various participating companies were revealed, raising the expectations of all who visited G-STAR.
At BEXCO’s first exhibition hall, Nexon Korea, which participated as a Diamond (main) sponsor, showcased four works as demonstration entries, including ‘Super Vibe’, ‘First Berserker: Kazan’, ‘Hwanse Chwihojeon Online’, and ‘Project Overkill’. It also presented a unique enjoyment by holding a large-scale orchestra performance to celebrate its 30th anniversary.
The number of visitors was estimated based on the number of people inside and outside the exhibition hall for four days rather than by day, as this year’s focus, following last year’s, was on the density inside and outside the exhibition hall. As a result, it was estimated that approximately 215,000 people visited G-STAR over the four days.
The BTB Hall on the 3rd floor of BEXCO’s 2nd Exhibition Hall was held offline and online for three days, from Thursday, November 14 to Saturday, November 16. The booth size was expanded compared to the previous year (896 booths in 2023, 924 booths in 2024), and a comfortable business infrastructure was built through the expansion of the size of the networking lounge, which was the most frequently used and its strategic location. The number of paying buyers who visited the G-STAR BTB exhibition hall for business consultations over the three days was 2,211.
G-STAR’s killer content, G-CON 2024, held this year with 42 sessions (4 keynotes, 38 general sessions, and three tracks), also captured the audience’s attention with the best-ever speaker lineup befitting its 20th anniversary.
The keynote session was attended by speakers including Executive Producer Kou Shibusawa (Yoichi Erikawa), founder of Koei Tecmo and considered one of the world’s greatest game creators, having developed “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” and “Age of Exploration”; Yoshinori Kitase, who oversaw the legendary JRPG “Final Fantasy” series; Naoki Hamaguchi, director of “Final Fantasy VII Remake”; Myungjin Yoon, CEO of Neople, who garnered the attention of many gamers with “First Berserker: Kazan”; and Mai Yoneyama, who is considered one of the best animators and illustrators of the current generation.
To celebrate G-Star’s 20th anniversary, the G-Star Indie Showcase 2.0: Galaxy, held in collaboration with the global game platform Steam, was held simultaneously at the booth set up in the BTC Hall of the 2nd Exhibition Hall and broadcast online on G-Star TV during the 4-day event. Many general visitors and BTB buyers visited the site to enjoy indie games.
This Indie Showcase also provided a unique opportunity for participating companies to demonstrate their works and other globally successful titles, such as ‘Elden Ring’ and ‘Dave the Diver’ in a Steam Deck experience space with a unique concept.
At the G-Star Indie Awards held on the 17th (Sun) for attendees of this year’s Indie Showcase, six works, including Snake Eagle’s ‘Kill the Witch’ and N-Spec’s ‘World On’, received excellent reviews and were honored with awards.
Kang Shin-cheol, chairman of the G-STAR Organizing Committee, said, “First, I would like to thank all the participating companies, related organizations, and participants who actively cooperated and worked hard to make the 20th G-STAR a success.” He added, “Thanks to the love and support you have shown for G-STAR for the past 20 years, we have grown this much. To repay your support, we will do our best to create a G-STAR that can continue to develop steadily.”
