Korea's Largest Game Convention G-Star Taking Place in Busan

Gaming fans are gathering in the southeastern port city of Busan for Korea's largest game convention, which kicked off at BEXCO on Thursday.

Making its return as a regular face-to-face event after it was held online due to the coronavirus pandemic last year, the 17th G-Star global game exhibition features 672 game companies from 40 countries.

Korea's three major gaming companies -- NCsoft, Netmarble and Nexon -- are not participating this year as the event is on a smaller scale amid the pandemic and they intend to focus on their projects for new games.

However, other rising game makers like Kakao Games and Krafton are presenting their own hit games.

Taking the spotlight is Kakao Games, the main sponsor of this year's event. The company is running 100 booths to present a wide range of games including "Odin: Valhalla Rising," which contributed heavily to the company's all-time high net profit of W466.2 billion during the third quarter (US$1=W1,183).

Krafton is also attracting gamers with its latest mobile offering "PUBG: New State." The game saw more than 10 million downloads on the Google Play Store within just a week of its release.

Other local and overseas gaming companies such as Shift Up and Tencent's Aurora Studio have are also participating in the event.

The event ends on Sunday.