South Korea’s premier international gaming exhibition, 'G-STAR 2025', officially opened its doors at BEXCO in Busan this morning, November 13, and will run through the 16th. This year, concerns have been raised regarding the event's success due to a reduction in total booth scale and the decreased participation of major domestic game companies. While international firms like Blizzard and Bandai Namco have returned after a long hiatus, and the conference speaker lineup has been strengthened to provide more attractions, there remains some unease regarding the overall spectacle of the game show.

The total booth scale for G-STAR 2025 is 3,010, a 10.4% decrease compared to last year. Specifically, the B2C section shrunk by approximately 13% to 2,106 booths, while the B2B section also saw a 2% reduction to 904 booths. The number of outdoor booths has also been scaled back from the usual five or six to just two.

Key B2C exhibitors include main sponsor NCSoft, along with Krafton, Netmarble, Webzen, Wemade Connect, Gravity, Google Korea, and Neowiz. Among international game companies, Battlestate Games—known for 'Escape from Tarkov'—as well as Blizzard and Bandai Namco, have been listed as major participants.

Meanwhile, several large domestic game companies, including Nexon, Pearl Abyss, Kakao Games, and Smilegate, have opted not to participate in G-STAR, choosing instead to attend overseas game shows held throughout the year. While this is interpreted as a move to seek breakthroughs in the global market amidst the stagnation of the domestic game industry, it has also drawn criticism that the status of G-STAR, the largest game show in Korea, has weakened.

Netmarble is exhibiting a total of five titles, including four new games—'The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin', 'Monster Guild: Star Dive', 'Solo Leveling: Arise', and 'Project Evilbane'—as well as the unannounced title 'Sol: Enchant'. Krafton is conducting the first-ever demonstration of 'Palworld Mobile', which is being developed based on the Palworld IP, and is also operating a 'Cafe PUBG' utilizing the 'PUBG: Battlegrounds' IP.

Webzen is exhibiting and demonstrating its new post-apocalyptic strategy defense game, 'Gate of Gates'. Wemade Connect is unveiling its new subculture turn-based strategy RPG, 'N.O.A.H', for the first time at G-STAR and showcasing a demo version. Additionally, in the second exhibition hall, various international developers such as Warhorse Studios, Sega, Atlus, Bandai Namco, and Blizzard have set up booths to bolster the content.

Meanwhile, the G-STAR Organizing Committee has focused on its conference program, G-CON. This year's event features 'Narrative' as the main theme, with a large number of famous domestic and international creators and developers participating as speakers, including Yuji Horii of 'Dragon Quest', Yoko Taro of the 'Nier' series, Hideki Kamiya of 'Bayonetta', and Naoki Yoshida of 'Final Fantasy 14'.

Furthermore, the organizing committee plans to provide a comfortable viewing environment by optimizing the distribution of admission tickets through visitor trend analysis and dispersing crowds. They have also established a system to prepare for emergency situations by designing traffic flows to prevent unauthorized entry and expanding cooperation with police, fire, and security personnel.