The four-day international game exhibition ‘G-STAR 2016’ ended on November 20th. Since the first event named ‘G-STAR’ was held in 2005, it has been held in Busan Metropolitan City eight times during the 12-year history. Now, beyond its theme as game, ‘G-STAR’ became one of the events that represent Busan.

When talking about G-STAR, Seo Tae-geon, a director of Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency, is the person to be mentioned. While working as the chief of Industry Promotion Department in Korea Game Industry Agency, he has been the chairman of the management committee since the first ‘G-STAR’ in 2005. Even after taking office as a director of Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency, his relation with ‘G-STAR’ has continued.

Finishing the 12th event, what is he thinking about ‘G-STAR’, and what will be the next for Busan Metropolitan City, which is developing as ‘City of Game’? I heard the story of ‘G-STAR’ and ‘City of Game’ Busan City directly from Seo-Tae geon.


“By looking at ‘G-STAR’ smoothly prepared and stably progressed compared to previous events, I thought that it has been mature in content. It can be said that it is now possible to be called a truly mature international game exhibition in terms of contents and operation as well as appearance. “

Compared to the images of ‘G-STAR’ that he has been experienced for a long time, he evaluated that there were many advances in this year’s ‘G-STAR’. In this regard, from the moment of completing ‘G-STAR 2015’ last year, he said that he shared many worries about how to organize the event in 2016 with Korea Internet & Digital Entertainment Association (K-iDEA) office as well as Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency, and, as a conclusion, they focused on the satisfaction of the exhibition environment and convenience.

“In recent years, the shift to the mobile environment has been a main topic for us. We worried about how to apply mobile games to exhibition operations, not just for exhibiting them. I think the elements such as ‘mobile ticket,’ which was first introduced in this year, ‘establishing network environment,’ which has no problem with a number of people, and ‘internet broadcasting,’ which is widely used by each company, played big roles in the invisible places for minimizing the inconvenience during ‘G-STAR 2016’.

Moreover, as another achievement of ‘G-STAR 2016,’ the next generation technologies like Virtual Reality (VR) have become well suited to the event to ensure that it does not lag behind the trend. It is judged that not only simply watching popular and new games, but also creating opportunities to experience new technologies, which had been felt inaccessible to us and seen only through the news, should be the way for ‘G-STAR’ to go.


On the strength of these various activities, he emphasized that ‘G-STAR’ has been expanded its scale to 330% within 8 years since it was held in Busan Metropolitan City. Thus, as befits its name ‘City of Game,’ through follow-up support business and connected business, it derived various movements from home and abroad. Also, he said that Busan Global Game Center, which has been busy with 22 companies to be popular game developers in the future, and business agreement, which was signed with HTC and Sony Interactive Entertainment Korea during ‘G-STAR 2016,’ would be strong supports for maintaining the title ‘City of Game’.

“Busan Metropolitan City has continued to grow game-related movements started from e-sport’s ‘mythology of Gwangalli’ by putting down the roots and sprouting. I have successfully held ‘G-STAR’ for eight years, and helped to release Indie games by launching organizations that professionally foster game companies. Now, Busan became an important city throughout the world’s game industry, as Indie game event ‘Busan Indie Game Festival (BIC)’ is held, as well as the release event of Blizzard Entertainment’s new game ‘Overwatch’.

Besides, it is mentioned medium-and long-term plan that Busan City and Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency progressed many businesses such as construction of Amazon Web Service (AWS) Cloud Innovation Center, which recently had groundbreaking ceremony, support for IoT-related projects, support for Webtoons and MCN creators, and progression of Music Lab project to become integrated support city, creating synergy with the connection of IT and game industry in the long term.

"It has been a long time since I declared to make Busan 'City of Game,' and a variety of activities have been progressed. The long-term plan of Busan Metropolitan City and Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency is to make the sentence 'game? Busan!' natural without saying 'City of Game' ourselves by growing Busan to a city recognized both domestically and internationally.

For the future of 'G-STAR,' as a number of people are expecting the game industry to be positioned as an entertainment that can be loved by the people, Seo Tae-geon predicted to reinforce the role for reducing inconvenience when using the game. It is mentioned that, not just 'G-STAR' that exists only for a few days of exhibition, making connections with all the game-related events held all over the country in one year such as competitions for students across the country, game competitions covering various platforms, more advanced conferences and symposiums, side events, and campaigns is the way for 'G-STAR' to go.

On the other hand, to a reporter's question related to opening of 'G-STAR,' he expressed his mind that 'G-STAR' would be continuously held in Busan. Having been watched 'G-STAR' for 12 years, Seo Tae-geon talked about the reason that it would be difficult to find a place like Busan Metropolitan City when considering the related industries and support policies that have been going on so far, the development potential of the game industry, and the know-how of the game exhibition for smooth exhibition.

"If you move the tree to another location, it will be difficult to stay strong and bear fruit. Since 'G-STAR' came down to Busan Metropolitan City, as its roots have been lowered and its stem has been rising well, there will soon be a time to bear fruit, and I hope that the world will be able to share the sweet fruits borne in Busan."



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