KOREA'S LARGEST GAME EXHIBITION KICKS OFF

[Anchor Lead]

G-Star 2019, the nation's largest game exhibition, kicked off in Busan yesterday. With the game industry in a slump lately, the global game trade show looks to revive the gaming interest worldwide with mobile games and "games you can watch."

[Pkg]

Cosplayers are masquerading as some of the most popular game characters today. There's a game that can be enjoyed simultaneously by more than 200 users. Long lines are formed in front of every game booth. These are the sights from G-Star 2019, the largest game trade show in Korea, which opened in Busan yesterday. This year's exhibit is the largest one to date, with some 690 companies from 36 nations occupying roughly 3,200 booths. However, Netmarble was the only one of the three giant game developers in Korea to attend the fair. NCSoft has not taken part in the show for four years now and Nexon decided to skip this year's event.

[Soundbite] JEONG GYU-BIN(VISITOR) : "For the first time, Nexon is not here. That's quite disappointing, but there are many more game companies including foreign firms than previous editions."

The void left by large firms were taken by the new releases of up-and-coming developers and broadcasters. This year's event features a greater number of "games you can watch." Game tournaments were aired live and well-known YouTubers streamed the sights and sounds of the trade show on their channels. It was also evident that gaming platformshifted from desktop computers to mobile devices.

[Soundbite] KANG SIN-CHEOL(CHAIR, G-STAR ORGANIZING COMMITTEE) : "There were concerns over whether mobile devices were qualified to be in our show. But we decided to include them after discussing with the participating companies. I think we're getting good responses."

Visitors were also fascinated by bold new ventures by independent developers and cloud-based VR games. The gaming industry hopes that this year's trade show would reignite the K-game fever that had dampened lately.