G-Star 2023 kicks off with record-breaking 3,328 booths

Korea's biggest game festival, G-Star 2023, kicks off in Busan with a record-breaking number of booths.

Visitors try out new games rolled out at G-Star 2023, the biggest annual game festival in Korea which kicked off at Busan's Bexco convention center on Thursday. A total of 3,328 booths from 1,037 companies from 42 countries will participate in the four-day event, which runs until Sunday. [YONHAP]

BUSAN — Cloudy weather couldn’t dampen the spirits of the excited crowd clustered around Busan’s Bexco convention center Thursday morning, brimming with gamers eager to be the first to get their hands on yet-to-be released games at G-Star 2023, Korea's biggest annual game festival. A total of 3,328 booths from 1,037 companies hailing from 42 countries have been set up at this year's G-Star to become the largest event to date, breaking 2019’s record of 3,208 booths. An array of local game companies such as NCSoft, Netmarble, Wemade, Krafton, Smilegate, Kakao Games, Pearl Abyss, Gravity, Nettention and NHN will take part in this year's festival.

G-star 2023, organized by the Korea Association of Game Industry (K-Games), kicked off on Thursday under the slogan “Expand your Horizons.” Held at Bexco in Busan, the event runs until Sunday.

“I took the train from Ulsan to arrive at Busan Station at 6 a.m. today,” 18-year-old Yoon Na-kyung told the journalist shyly before entering the convention center. “The most anticipated game for me would be [Krafton’s] Darker and Darker Mobile. I know the game is embroiled in a dispute [related to copyright infringement] but regardless, I loved the prior franchise massively multiplayer online (MMO) game and want to try out the game firsthand.”

A few rows behind Yoon was 28-year-old Choi Young-ung, who stood out from the crowd dressed in cosplay from head to toe as Jeopalgye, a pig warrior from the popular 90s Korean TV animation “Fly, Superboard” adapted from the Chinese classic “Journey to the West.” Choi had come with five other friends and had been waiting in line since 7 a.m.

“I cosplayed as Jeopalgye to boost my confidence because I am obese,” Choi said in a matter-of-fact tone. “I thought the character was the perfect cosplay for me. As for the festival, I am interested in playing the new unreleased games by developer Hypergryph, famous for its Arknights franchise. I think the illustrations are really pretty.”

Gamers line up to enter G-Star 2023 in front of the Bexco Convention Center, in Busan, on Thursday morning. [SONG BONG-GEUN]

Except for Nexon, the rest of the Korean game companies have not fared well in their quarterly earnings. In the July-September period, NCSoft’s operating profit nosedived 89 percent on year to 16.5 billion won ($12.7 million) due to a lack of new game releases. Netmarble recorded another operating loss for the seventh consecutive quarter, although the loss was reduced to 21.9 billion won compared to the year before. Kakao Games, Pearl Abyss and Webzen all saw a fall in operating profit last quarter, declining 48.4, 82.5 and 42.31 percent on year, respectively.

NCSoft is one of the major participants among Korean game publishers with a big unveiling, with seven new titles showcased and the largest number of booths at 200. NCSoft is participating in the festival for the first time in eight years.

The company is attempting to find new growth momentum, breaking away from its conventional game genre of mobile games to PC and consoles.

It will reveal its role-playing game (RPG) Project BSS, massively multiplayer online shooting game LLL and multiplatform game Battle Crush. Battle Crush is the first NCSoft game with cross-play support, not only on Steam and Google Android, but also on Nintendo Switch.

On Saturday, the latest version of NCSoft’s much-anticipated Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) Throne and Liberty will be presented by the developers. Gamers will be able to see for themselves the revisions that the company made based on feedback it received during the beta test period. Throne and Liberty is slated for local release on Dec. 7, and will be serviced globally through Amazon Games next year.

Wemade, the main sponsor of the gaming festival for two consecutive years, fronts two new titles, MMORPG Legend of Ymir and baseball game Fantastic4 Baseball. It will also host a fireworks festival dubbed “Wemade Festive Night” around the Haeundae District, eastern Busan, from 8 p.m. Saturday.

Officials from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Korea Association of Game Industry (K-Games), Busan city government and participating companies pose for a photo during the opening ceremony of G-Star 2023 held at Bexco, Busan, on Thursday morning. [YONHAP]

Netmarble will present three new titles — action RPG “The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin, MMORPG RF Project and RPG Demis Re:Born. The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin is the anticipated follow-up after The Seven Deadly Sins: Grand Cross which surpassed more than 60 million global downloads.

Krafton will unveil Darker and Darker Mobile, developed by its subsidiary Bluehole Studio. The mobile version of the title comes amid the legal dispute between Ironmace and Nexon, with the latter accusing the former of stealing the data from its canceled project to create the MMO game, Darker and Darker.

Global companies are also taking part, such as Epic Games, Coda Payments, Mistplay and Xsollla.

Government bodies, such as the Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency and Incheon Technopark are participating in the event to provide space for smaller companies to introduce their projects. The Embassy of Canada and the Embassy of Australia also have booths set up.

Visitors try out new games rolled out at the G-Star 2023, the biggest annual game festival in Korea which kicked off at Busan's Bexco convention center on Thursday. [SONG BONG-GEUN]

G-Star’s main conference event, G-Con, takes place on Thursday and Friday. Guest speakers include Sony Interactive Entertainment’s former CEO Shuhei Yoshida, former Weekly Jump manga magazine editor Kazuhiko Torishima, Smilegate director Geum Kang-sun, Wemade CEO Jang Hyun-guk and Ha Jung-woo, the head of AI Innovation and Naver Cloud.

The G-Star committee continued to stress the importance of preventing overcrowding since last year, especially after the Itaewon tragedy on Halloween in 2022. For G-Star 2022, around 184,000 people visited the festival across four days.

Police and volunteers were seen across the festival wherever there were lines.

For the first time this year, the festival is accepting booth reservations both online and offline through the G-Star website and at Bexco for the G-Star 2024 on Friday and Saturday. A company may reserve a minimum of 40 to 100 booths in the business-to-consumer section and 10 to 30 booths in business-to-business section.

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]