Global game exhibition G-Star kicks off in Busan

(Yonhap)

G-Star 2025, South Korea’s biggest game show, kicked off on Thursday at BEXCO in the maritime city of Busan, showcasing a wave of new titles heading for the global market.

Hosted by the Korea Association of Game Industry and co-organized by the G-Star organizing committee and the Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency, the four-day event runs through Sunday.

Now in its 21st year, this year’s show brings together 1,273 companies from 44 countries with 3,269 booths.

G-Star 2025 centers on the theme, “expansion of stories and narrative,” putting a spotlight on creativity and storytelling throughout its visuals, conference sessions, and exhibition programs.

NCSoft Corp. is participating as the main sponsor for the first time, setting up a 300-booth space and unveiling the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), “Aion 2,” which is scheduled for release on Wednesday.

The company is also showing the open-world shooter “Cinder City” from its subsidiary Bigfire Games, along with “Time Takers” from Mistil Games Co. and “Limit Zero Breakers” from Vic Game Studios.

Netmarble Corp. has installed 112 booths with 145 demo stations to debut four titles: “Project EVILBANE,” “Solo Leveling: KARMA,” “The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin,” and “Mongil: STAR DIVE.”

The company is also operating an outdoor booth in front of BEXCO Exhibition Hall 1 for its unreleased title “SOL: enchant.”

Krafton Inc. is unveiling “Palworld Mobile” for the first time and has created an exhibition zone themed around “PUBG: Battlegrounds.”

Webzen Inc. is presenting “Gate of Gates,” a new subculture title being developed by domestic studio LiTRAIL, and is releasing the cinematic trailer for its MU-based in-house project “Project G,” the working title for its next game.

Global publishers including Warhorse Studios, Sega Corp. and subsidiary Atlus Co., Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc., Unity Software Inc., and Blizzard Entertainment Inc. have also opened booths offering exhibits and on-site events for fans.

The Indie Showcase 2.0: Galaxy exhibit features participation from KOMODO Co., the distributor of Valve Corp.’s Steam Deck handheld gaming computer, as well as Unity and Discord Inc.

The business-to-business section includes booths from Samsung Electronics Co., Nexus Co., Smilegate Entertainment Inc., NC AI Co., NX3Games, Xsolla, Tencent Cloud and others. The G-Star organizing committee is also holding a networking event with Microsoft Corp. to expand global partnerships.

G-Star’s main conference, G-CON, is built around the theme of narrative and examines storytelling in games as well as in films, comics and other pop culture content.

Yuji Horii, creator of Square Enix Group’s “Dragon Quest” series, leads this year’s speaker lineup, joined by “NieR: Automata” director Yoko Taro and film director Byun Sung-hyun of “Good News.”

“G-Star 2025 is more than an exhibition; it is a stage where developers from around the world share their own stories,” said Cho Young-ki, head of the G-Star organizing committee. “This year’s event will showcase the language of creation, the depth of storytelling and the power to translate those stories into experience.”