◈ Busan City confirmed as the next host city (2025-2028) in the ‘G-STAR Host City Interim Evaluation’ hosted by the Korea Game Industry Association
◈ Mayor Park Hyung-jun: “We will further strengthen G-Star’s international competitiveness over the next four years and develop it into a true global gaming city.”
Busan City (Mayor Park Hyung-joon) announced that the city was confirmed as the host city for the next G-Star (2025-2028) in the ‘Interim Evaluation of the Host City for the International Game Exhibition G-Star (hereinafter referred to as G-Star)’ hosted by the Korea Association of Game Industry (Chairman Kang Shin-cheol).
G-STAR is the largest global game exhibition in Korea, hosted by the Korea Game Industry Association. It will be operated in a way that a mid-term evaluation will be conducted after 4 years out of a total of 8 years (2021-2028), and depending on eligibility, it will be extended for another 4 years.
Since the first G-Star was held in 2009, the city has successfully hosted G-Star for 16 years in cooperation with the Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency (Director Tae-Yeol Kim).
G-STAR has established itself as a representative regional game industry festival, showcasing diverse programs such as new product announcements from major domestic and international game companies, e-sports competitions, and conferences. In addition, the city is continuously investing in expanding infrastructure and improving convenience facilities in the region, including BEXCO, to ensure the stable operation and successful hosting of G-STAR.
In this host city evaluation, various items were evaluated, including ▲local government investment ▲support for exhibition infrastructure ▲support for accommodation and transportation ▲cooperation with local governments and related organizations ▲support for public infrastructure ▲vision presentation, etc.
The midterm evaluation was attended by Lee Jun-seung, Vice Mayor of the City, Cho Yu-jang, Director of the Culture and Sports Bureau, and Kim Tae-yeol, President of the Busan Information Industry Promotion Agency, who delivered suggestions such as ▲the city’s full support ▲the efforts made so far to host the event ▲close collaboration with the hosting organization, to ensure that the event will be reborn as an even more complete event in the future.
With the venue confirmed, this year’s (2025) G-STAR will be held at BEXCO for four days from November 13 to 16, and plans to welcome global game fans and game-related professionals with more diverse and rich content.
Meanwhile, last year (2024), G-STAR, which celebrated its 20th anniversary, ended successfully with the largest number of visitors in history, 3,359 booths were set up and 215,000 visitors visited, recording the highest number of visitors since COVID-19.
Mayor Park Hyung-joon said, “Busan has grown into the center of the Korean game industry through G-STAR for 16 years,” and added, “We will further strengthen G-STAR’s international competitiveness over the next four years and develop Busan into a true ‘global game city.’”
