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| Visitors gather in front of the BEXCO exhibition center in Busan, Thursday, as the global G-Star 2018 game exhibition kicked off for a four-day run. / Yonhap |
By Jun Ji-hye
BUSAN ― The global G-Star 2018 game exhibition kicked off in the southeastern port city of Busan Thursday, with game firms raising hope that the event will serve as a breakthrough in the stagnant game industry.
This year's event is the largest ever featuring 2,966 booths of 689 companies from 36 countries, according to the Korea Association of Game Industry (K-GAMES), an organizer of the four-day event.
"This year's G-Star is larger than last year's event owing to roaring attention of companies seeking better business performance in and outside the country," K-GAMES President Kang Shin-chul said.
Those participating in the BTC hall include domestic game firms such as Nexon, Netmarble, Kakao Games and Bluehole, as well as foreign companies such as Epic Games and Google.
Wemade Entertainment, Naver and other domestic companies as well as Tencent, Microsoft and other foreign firms have booths in the BTB hall.
Nine companies from eight countries including the United Kingdom, Denmark, the United States and Tunisia participated in the Indie Game Hall, exploring business opportunities in the Korean market.
The game industry has accounted for 50 percent of the nation's content exports, but the industry has suffered a gloomy climate recently amid delays in releasing new games and difficulty exporting games to China, in addition to negative public perceptions toward games.
Netmarble released 15 new games in 2016, but only seven this year. Nexon, which launched 17 new games last year, has released 14 this year, while NCSOFT has released no notable games in the first half of the year.
Among others, a mandatory 52-hour workweek, which went into effect in July, is cited as the cause of the firms' difficulties in developing and releasing new games in time.
A game firm official noted, asking not to be named, as working hours have been reduced, the time required to develop a new game has increased.
"I hope officials in the game industry and related institutions will be able to discuss measures to resolve issues related to new work culture during G-Star," he said.
Game companies have also experienced setbacks as exports of their games to China have been blocked since March last year when the Chinese government suspended issuance of permits necessary for Korean games to be sold in China, in what was seen as part of the country's protest of Korea's deployment of a U.S. THAAD system.
Companies said discussions to explore new markets such as South America will take place during the event.
Game firms are also growing anxious about the Ministry of Health and Welfare which is considering accepting the stance of the World Health Organization (WHO) that game addiction is a mental disorder.
Stressing that such a position is likely to lead to stringent regulations and kill the game industry, another official from a game firm said, "I hope G-Star will be a venue to inform of the good side of games."
