- Expanding the scope of the exhibition to include AI, automobiles, and fashion… The proportion of indie game showcases is also growing.
- KREAM Selected as First Main Sponsor… Expanding Out-of-Game Touchpoints Through Collaboration with Hyundai Motor
- Devolver Digital, Discord, SteamDeck, and Unity are participating… The list of indie developers will be revealed later.
Korea’s largest game exhibition, ‘G-STAR 2026,’ will be held at BEXCO in Busan for four days from November 19 to 22. With news of participation from major domestic game companies slow to materialize this year, G-STAR is changing its exhibition layout to expand its connections with other industries, such as AI, webtoons, automobiles, and fashion.
Amidst this trend, the importance of ‘G-Star Indie Showcase 2.0: GALAXY,’ an in-house content directly planned and operated by the G-Star Organizing Committee, has also grown noticeably. We have summarized what this year’s G-Star will mean for both indie game developers and users.
Opening on November 19, G-Star Changed Amidst the Absence of Major Companies
G-Star 2026 will be held at BEXCO in Busan from November 19 to 22. The BTC exhibition for general visitors will run for four days, while the BTB exhibition for business consultations between industry professionals will run for three days from the 19th to the 21st.
The global conference ‘G-CON’ will be held for two days from the 19th to the 20th. Following last year, this year’s G-CON is planned under the theme of ‘Narrative’ to expand exchanges between game creators and creators from other industries, such as film and comics.
The first list of BTC participants, released on August 13, included Webzen, Google Play, NetEase Games, Bilibili Games, and Century Games. Industry attention was focused on the exclusion of major domestic game companies, with the exception of Webzen, and the organizing committee clarified that the list did not represent the full lineup of participants.
Since then, the lineup is gradually filling in as Krafton announced its participation for the 10th consecutive year and Hoyoverse announced its return after four years. However, as there are major companies that have not yet revealed whether they will participate, we will have to wait for further announcements to see the final lineup.
Expanding scope through non-gaming main sponsors and collaborations with other industries
This year, G-Star selected the AI story creation platform ‘Crack’ as its first main sponsor. The organizing committee explained that this choice symbolizes the expansion of the gaming industry’s scope.
A special booth for Hyundai Motor’s N brand, the ‘2026 Hyundai N Virtual Cup Grand Final,’ collaboration with the trend trading platform KREAM, a new game experience zone linked with Intel, and an experience hall for the Game Culture Festival organized by the Korea Content Creative Agency will also be set up. This configuration reflects the Organizing Committee’s direction to transform G-STAR into a comprehensive cultural festival.
Organizing Committee Chairman Cho Young-ki identified the discovery of convergence content connecting different industries, along with the strengthening of in-house content directly planned and operated by the committee, as the two pillars for this year. This is why the Indie Showcase is considered the representative content.
Indie Showcase 2.0: Galaxy, set up on a large scale on the 1st floor of Exhibition Hall 2
‘Indie Showcase 2.0: Galaxy’ will be set up on a large scale on the first floor of BEXCO Exhibition Center 2 again this year. Global platform, publisher, and engine companies such as Devolver Digital, Discord, SteamDeck (distributor Comodo), and Unity have been revealed as participating partners for this year. The list of individual participating indie developers and the exact size of their booths have not yet been announced.
A relevant benchmark is last year’s performance. The G-Star 2025 Indie Showcase operated on a scale of 400 booths, with 80 indie developers from 20 countries participating. Among them, 41 were overseas developers from countries such as Germany, Spain, the United States, China, and Japan.
The Steam Deck experience zone also offered demonstrations of major titles, serving as a point of contact where general visitors and B2B buyers could experience indie games firsthand.
For indie developers, G-Star is ‘one of the options’
From the perspective of indie developers, participating in G-Star is one of several options. The participation fees for G-Star 2026 were set at 2 million won for an independent booth, 3 million won for a modular booth, and 1.5 million won for a lounge booth.
The most affordable lounge booths are available exclusively at the BTB Network Lounge and were newly introduced this year to improve business meeting accessibility for small and medium-sized enterprises and startups. The Busan Information Industry Promotion Agency also supports the participation of local game companies by operating the BTB Busan Joint Pavilion (supporting approximately 20 companies).
Meanwhile, industry observers point out that the composition of BTC tends to be skewed toward main sponsors and large companies, leading an increasing number of small and indie companies to choose events like AGF or BIC given a similar budget.
The scale of events dedicated to indie games is growing, as evidenced by the Busan Indie Connect Festival (BIC) 2026, held this August, where 332 games from 42 countries were selected for on-site exhibition out of 856 entries from 57 countries. The key appears to be how G-Star can differentiate itself in providing B2C experience opportunities and touchpoints with global publishers and platforms through its Indie Showcase.
What Indie Game Users Should Look For at G-Star 2026
From the perspective of visitors, the strength of G-Star lies in the ability to experience both major new releases and indie games in the same space. The Steam Deck experience zone at the Indie Showcase is expected to provide an opportunity to test out various games in a portable PC environment.
Last year, the total number of visitors to G-Star was approximately 202,000, with 1,273 participating companies (from 44 countries) and 3,269 booths. This year’s list of indie entries, booth layout, and G-CON speaker lineup will be revealed sequentially through the official G-Star website and social media.
The center of gravity at G-Star, which has traditionally been centered around major companies, appears to be gradually shifting toward indie games and collaborations with other industries this year. However, the lineup of indie titles and the final composition of BTC participants have not yet been finalized. It seems that the key point of interest for both indie game developers and users will be which titles fill this year’s Indie Showcase.
Information regarding ‘G-Star 2026’
| item | detail |
|---|---|
| Event Name | G-STAR 2026 |
| schedule | November 19 (Thu) – 22 (Sun), 2026 |
| location | Busan BEXCO |
| Host | Korea Game Industry Association (K-GAMES) |
| subjectivity | G-STAR Organizing Committee, Busan Information Industry Promotion Agency |
| Exhibition composition | BTC (19~22), BTB (19~21), G-CON (19~20) |
| Main Sponsor | Crack (Rütten Technologies) |
| Indie exhibition | Indie Showcase 2.0: Galaxy, Partners: Devolver Digital, Discord, SteamDeck (Komodo), Unity |
| Participation fee | Independent booth 2 million won, modular booth 3 million won, lounge booth 1.5 million won |
| Last year’s scale (2025) | 1,273 companies from 44 countries, 3,269 booths, approximately 202,000 visitors |
| Official website | Shortcut |
