G-Star offers glimpse of future of game industry

BUSAN -- Elves, monsters and supercars from popular online games became much more real at the annual G-Star game trade show, luring gaming aficionados to the event that opened Thursday in Busan.

From car exhibits to stage shows, companies took their characters out of their game worlds to reach out to players.
 

The four-day trade show is a venue for game developing companies to unveil what developers often call “art pieces,” in advance before launching their products in the market.

Alongside the introduction of new games, exhibitors at this year’s G-Star put much effort in bringing online content to the offline world, utilizing their intellectual properties including game characters, music, and background stories of games.

“Unlike the previous G-Star events where companies only introduced new game titles, they now envision what they can do with their intellectual property,” said Kim Chang-hyeon, team leader of game developer NCSoft’s public relations team.

“As global firms in different sectors, such as Marvel, utilize their IPs to produce different kinds of content, more domestic game companies are trying to make use of their IPs to create new content including comics, movies, and music,” he added.

NCSoft, one of the leading online game developers here, prepared a number of character-based displays, including webtoons and a stage musical based on online game “Blade and Soul,” for the game trade show.

Collaboration was one of the head-turning features of the four-day game show. 

Joining hands with global game developers including Electronic Arts, Nexon set up booths where visitors can play the updated version of soccer game “FIFA Online 3” and first person shooter “Sudden Attack 2.”

Nexon and EA are also hosting the first FIFA Online 3 Asian Cup competition to be held from Thursday through Saturday. A total of eight teams from seven nations including China, Vietnam, Thailand and Korea are participating in the online football competition to win prizes worth $300,000 in total.

It also displayed supercars such as the Lamborghini Huracan and Porsche to promote the racing game “Need for Speed Edge.”

Both Nexon and NCSoft exhibited electronics devices, including Samsung Electronics’ products including smart TVs, virtual reality goggle Gear VR and Gear S2, to attract game users.

Displaying its curved monitors and super slim laptops at its own exhibition booth, LG Electronics tried to appeal to visitors who want to use devices designed for playing games.

The day before the trade show, Netmarble picked up eight 8 prizes -- six, including the grand prize, for role-playing game “Raven” and two for massively multiplayer online role-playing game “Maple Story 2” -- at the 2015 Korea Game Awards, the largest game awards event in Korea.

By Kim Young-won(wone0102@heraldcorp.com)