G-Star 2010 Biggest Ever

Busan event attracts 311 game makers from 22 countries including Sony Entertainment and Microsoft

G-Star 2010, the biggest game show in Korea, kicked off on Nov. 18 at BEXCO in Busan for a four-day run with the participation of 311 Internet game makers from 22 countries operating 1,494 booths.
The colorful event featured new game contents, future trends for social network games and the revival of video console games through ‘action recognition.’
President Lee Jae-woong of the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) said the show displayed games of many major game development firms, their key games indicating the trends for the revival of video console games by such renowned console game makers as Blizzard, so that the viewers can see the direction of games in the days ahead.
What attracted the most attention at the show were new games that were produced following extensive work by the game makers. NHN introduced “Terra,” an MMORPG, which took four years to make at a cost of 40 billion won. A game official said the game can be played by a multiple players at the same time, especially at a party, and can be watched by many people in one place.
NcSoft came up with Blade and Soul, following Lineage 2 and Ion, and held a test-run of the new game. We Made Entertainment introduced “Ned,” which took five years to develop at the cost of 40 billion won.
Blizzard Entertainment Korea came out with “Diablo III” and “The World Of Witchcraft: A Huge Transformation” for the experience of the viewers.
A noticeable matter at the event was that many social network game (SNG) makers came to introduce games based on such social network services as Facebook, MySpace and others, a blue ocean market recognized early by U.S. IT experts. Among the SNG makers at G-Star 2010 included the top three, Zinga, Playfish and Playdom.
They came to Busan to find a new market for their games, with Korea seen as virgin territory for SNGs, and to search for new game developers. They operated the “SNG Pavilion” at BEXCO and held a seminar on SNGs with SNG experts from the United States.
Unusual for the past several G-Star events, many video console game makers came to the show this year, the most in five years. Sony Entertainment came to G-Star for the first time in five years along with Microsoft Korea to introduce their new games including Sony’s “Play Station 3” (PS 3) and Microsoft’s “Xbox 360 Connect,” which competed for the viewers’ attention at the BEXCO event.
The number of game makers from home and abroad that came to the event was the largest in recent years. A maker operated 100 booths and Blizzard ran 80 booths, while NcSoft had 65 booths, although the company planned to set up only 60 booths.
KOCCA officials said because G-Star this year was the largest in recent years, it will have very good results in the area of business matching and they will make sure that G-Star keeps its global rank as the third largest such event in the world.
KOCCA was established in May 2009, to efficiently support the growth of the cultural content industry by combining the Korea Broadcasting Institute, the Korea Culture and Content Agency, Korea Game Industry Agency, Cultural Content Center and Digital Contents Business Group of the Korea IT Industry Promotion Agency.
KOCCA is an agency dedicated to promoting all areas of content. The agency established a comprehensive support system to nurture the content industry and aim to develop Korea as one of the world’s top five content powerhouses.
KOCCA conducts various support businesses to help Korea’s content industry grow into a global leader in the creative economy. nw

(photo left) A view of G Star2010 that opened at BEXCO in Busan on Nov. 18 for a four-day run. Officials of game makers view their new game products at the G Star 2010 at BEXCO that opened on Nov. 18. Game makers included NHN, NcSoft, and Blizzard Entertainment Korea among others.