[KH Explains] Can G-Star level up?

G-Star, Korea’s top annual gaming convention, is getting ready for its 20th edition set to open at the Busan Exhibition & Convention Center, or Bexco, on November 14.

The G-Star organizing committee said this year’s event will feature 3,281 booths, slightly more than the previous year, which was the largest event in G-Star's 20-year history and drew nearly 200,000 visitors.

“This year’s G-Star marks a very important moment as we welcome the convention's 20th anniversary,” said Kang Shin-chul, president of the Korea Association of Game Industry, which organizes G-Star. “It will be significant in showing G-Star’s new look and its blueprint for the next 20 years.”

Game developer Nexon, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary, is G-Star's main sponsor this year. Other participants in the exhibition include key players in the country’s gaming industry such as Netmarble, Krafton, Lionheart Studio, Pearl Abyss, Webzen, Hybe IM and Gravity.

Steam, the world’s largest video game distribution platform, will take part in this year’s G-Star for the first time. Exhibition booths will be set up by Gryphline, a global game publisher based in Singapore, and Qiddiya, a Saudi Arabian state-backed entertainment megaproject.

G-Star is working to join the leagues of the world’s most famous game exhibitions such as Germany’s Gamescom and Japan’s Tokyo Game Show, which stakeholders say will require a concerted effort from all parties involved.

“If G-Star can create a new paradigm outside of the traditional one, I expect it will surpass the Tokyo Game Show in a few years,” Yong Ho-seong, first vice minister of culture, sports and tourism, told reporters at the Tokyo Game Show on Sept. 27.

“For G-Star to become a global event, people from around the world must visit Korea to attend. The game exhibition itself is valuable, but I believe it can exponentially expand its audience when combined with different genres such as K-pop, dramas and movies.”

Although G-Star invites many foreign speakers to G-Con, the event’s game conference, most general visitors who come to try out new games and check out the booths are from Korea.

A gaming industry official suggested that the current venue in Busan may not be what G-Star needs to take the next step.

“Busan itself is an attractive city, but Bexco has limitations in hosting a game expo,” said the official.

“For hosting a large-scale game expo in Korea, I think a better fit would be Kintex or Coex.”

Kintex, which is located in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, is the largest convention venue in the country, with an exhibition floor area of 108,566 square meters. Located about 52 kilometers away from Incheon International Airport, Kintex hosted the first three editions of G-Star from 2005 to 2008. Bexco has hosted the gaming expo every year since 2009.

Coex, a complex in southern Seoul, offers an exhibition area of 38,231 square meters. Despite being smaller than Bexco, which has 46,380 square meters of exhibition space, Coex provides a more attractive option for domestic game companies as most of them are headquartered in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province, only about 17 kilometers away from Coex.

The official conceded, however, that the G-Star organizing committee appears to be content with the event's success so far. In the meantime, he suggested that the organizers persuade large international game studios to exhibit booths at G-Star and showcase new titles.

Kim Jung-tae, a professor at Dongyang University’s School of Game, emphasized the importance of focusing on quality, not quantity.

“Gamescom and Tokyo Game Show have much bigger domestic markets and the perception of games is more favorable there so we must recognize that there is a limit (for G-Star),” he said.

“There needs to be a strategy to attract international buyers and gamers by unveiling new games exclusively at G-Star, or by having other unique content such as first-look concept art and illustrations.”

The professor added that G-Star could also benefit from hosting seminars led by gaming researchers and scholars from Korea and abroad.

“The most efficient way to highlight G-Star on the global stage is to utilize esports,” said Kim.

“In the Middle East, they are hosting esports events with tens of millions of dollars in prize money, and the world has taken notice. If the government will bolster its support and esports teams and game companies work together, we can put on a world-class esports event at G-Star.”