The largest convergence game show in the metropolitan area, ‘PlayX4 2023’, ended on the 14th with 105,000 visitors, the largest ever.
According to Gyeonggi-do, on the 17th, it was counted that 105,000 people attended the ‘2023 Play Expo’ held at KINTEX, Goyang, from the 11th to the 14th. This is a 38% increase from last year’s 76,000.
At the 15th 2023 Play Expo exhibition, a space was prepared to experience various games such as console, arcade, indie/startup, PC/mobile, and gaming gear.
Large-scale console game companies such as Nintendo of Korea, Bandai Namco Entertainment Korea, and Arc System Works Co., Ltd. participated in Play Expo as large-scale stand-alone booths. They held various events, such as new game announcements and e-sports competitions. Eternal Return, developed by Nimble Neuron and serviced by Kakao Games, also participated alone on a larger scale than last year and held game experiences and events. In particular, on weekends, the Lumia Night Market, which sells products using Eternal Return intellectual property (IP), was also held and received a great response from the visitors.
On the 11th, the first day of the export consultation to help domestic game developers advance into overseas markets, an agreement ceremony was held to develop the game industry in the province and support new companies. Gyeonggi-do, Neowiz, NHN, Korea Game Developers Association, and Gyeonggi Contents Agency expressed they will further accelerate the development of the domestic game industry.
In addition, additional programs such as investment briefings (IR pitching demo day) to attract investment from developers, seminars on overseas expansion, and the 18th Gyeonggi Game Audition event were additionally organized to operate export consultations. 183 domestic developers and 245 domestic and foreign buyers from 25 countries participated in this export consultation and a total of 428 companies conducted export consultations. Through this, the contract promotion amount was 145 million dollars (KRW 193 billion), an increase of about 12% compared to last year.
In addition, on the special stage of the Gyeonggi e-Sports Festival, various events such as the e-Sports competition for the disabled, campus competition, Street Fighter V Korea-Japan national competition, Dplus Kia fan signing event, Eternal Return Cobalt Blue event, etc. got it In particular, in the Street Fighter V match, an official event of the Hangzhou Asian Games, the Korean team won by a narrow margin after a close match, raising expectations for the upcoming Hangzhou Asian Games.
A total of 86 campuses participated in the 3rd Campus Competition this year, the most among the competitions held so far, and League of Legends ‘Jeonnam Science University,’ FIFA Online 4 ‘Soongsil University,’ and Eternal Return ‘Daejeon University’ won the championship. All events were broadcast live through Twitch TV, and the total number of views for the four days was 474,000, demonstrating the interest of gamers who participated online and offline visitors.
The 2023 Play Expo ended its grand finale by establishing itself as the largest ‘convergence game show’ in the metropolitan area where the whole family can come together, including game introductions in various fields, quizzes, career lectures, cosplay (costume player) contests, and busking performance events.
