For twenty-two years, the first question any Korean game developer asked each September was how much floor space they could get atG-STAR, the country's enormous annual game fair in Busan. This year, for the first time, the answer for most of them was zero. When G-STAR 2026 opens at BEXCO on 19 November, Nexon, Netmarble, NCSoft, Kakao Games, Smilegate, Pearl Abyss, NHN and Shift Up will all be absent. Krafton and Webzen are the only major Korean publishers left.
The reasoning is on the income statements. Overseas sales were 52% of NCSoft's second-quarter revenue, 78% at Netmarble and 91% at Pearl Abyss. Games designed from the start for a global audience earn more from a launch in Chiba or Cologne than from a homecoming show. So the Korean majors went there: 127 Korean companies exhibited at Tokyo Game Show in late September, roughly two and a half times the previous year's count. "They had already unveiled their new titles at gamescom and Tokyo Game Show, so there was little reason to spend more money to show them again at G-STAR," one industry official told Chosun Biz. Netmarble chairman Bang Jun-hyuk, speaking in Tokyo, rejected the word boycott.
Chinese publishers filled the gap quickly. The organising committee's floor plan of 29 September lists nine Korean companies, eight Chinese, three Japanese, two American and one European exhibitor in the main consumer hall. HoYoverse is returning after four years away with a 100-booth space, showing Zenless Zone Zero events alongside Honkai: Nexus Anima and Petit Planet. NetEase Games' Joker Studio takes a central hall booth, while Century Games and Bilibili Games are also on the list. One industry observer noted that Chinese titles, once confined to niche subcultures in Korea, now have traction across genres, so G-STAR is also a market test.
What the show still has is international weight. Hall 2 opens with the G-STAR Global Game Showcase, a new format in which foreign studios run hands-on demos: Koei Tecmo with Wo Long 2 and Nioh 3; Sega with Total War: Warhammer 40,000 in Korea for the first time; and CD Projekt Red running playable Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 areas, with footage of a Witcher 3 expansion in Korean dub. The indie showcase, G-STAR Indie Showcase 2.0: GALAXY, expands to 250 booths with 106 developers, with Devolver Digital and the Embassy of Poland hosting a joint space.
The conference is as interesting as the floor. G-CON 2026 takes the theme of narrative, pairing Macross director Shoji Kawamori with Blue Archive producer Kim Yong-ha; the art and engine-graphics leads on Pearl Abyss's Crimson Desert, David Merwick of Little Nightmares and the Hades team are also on. Blizzard's Overwatch Champions Series Asia Stage 3 Grand Final returns to the BEXCO auditorium for the first time in three years, with the top eight regional finalists. A Steam partnership adds a G-STAR promotion page and G-STAR Premiere, an online showcase streamed the night before the doors open.
The organising committee's response has been to widen rather than shrink. Under chairman Cho Young-ki of the Korea Game Industry Association, G-STAR has added webtoon, animation and film content to fill the gap, and for the first time in its 22-year history the main sponsor is not a game company at all — it is Crack, an AI character-chat platform run by Wrtn Technologies. The deeper question is whether G-STAR can be more than a homecoming event. With its biggest domestic publishers showing new games in Tokyo and Cologne, and Chinese firms filling the gap in Busan, it is becoming another stop on a regional circuit.Editor note — verify before publishing:(a)Date conflict — resolve before publishing.The organising committee's floor-plan release (29 Sep 2026, reported by The Elec and Chosun Daily English) gives the B2C run as19–22 November 2026and the B2B hall as 19–21 November; The Korea Herald also says 19–22.Chosun Biz (14 Oct 2026) gives "18–22 November"(five days), and a specialist guide (gamebridges) says "19 to 22" but separately places the pre-show G-STAR Premiere on 18 November. This brief uses19–22 November. Confirm against g-star.or.kr before publishing and do not print both. (b) The Korean-publisher absences (Nexon, Netmarble, NCSoft, Kakao Games, Smilegate, Pearl Abyss, NHN, Shift Up) are confirmed by Korea Herald, Chosun Biz and IT Chosun.Krafton's status changed: AJU Press (13 Aug 2026) reports Krafton absent from theinitialAugust list, but the 29 Sep floor-plan release and Chosun Biz (14 Oct) both list Krafton as exhibiting in Hall 1 — this brief therefore states Kraftonisexhibiting. Do not repeat the August "Krafton absent" line. (c) The BTC floor-plan nationality split (9 Korean / 8 Chinese / 3 Japanese / 2 American / 1 European) is fromThe Korea Herald; the "8 Chinese companies" figure is described there as industry sources' tally. Note it counts companies, not booths. (d) Ticket prices (KRW 18,000 adult, KRW 8,000 youth born on/after 1 Jan 2008), the 100% pre-sale-only policy and the two-tickets-per-person-per-day limit come from a specialist guide (gamebridges), not from an official release — verify on g-star.or.kr or the official app before publishing. (e) The 9 m² booth at ~2 million won figure is from IT Chosun; the "three million won a year" Busan support and the Cho Young-ki / Jung Seung-woo quotes are from AJU Press and Chosun Biz. (f) The 2025 baseline (202,000+ visitors, 3,269 booths across BTC and BTB, 2,190 paid buyers in BTB, 16 G-CON sessions) is confirmed via the 16 Nov 2025 closing coverage;2024 was 215,000 visitors and 3,359 booths, so G-STAR's audience has been shrinking and the "crisis" framing is a fair characterisation — label the 2025 figures as the previous edition's actuals. (g) The "crisis" label comes from Chosun Biz and AJU Press — attribute it as commentary rather than stating it as fact. (h) The indie area figure of 250 booths / 106 developers and the Steam Deck / Discord sponsorship are from the 29 Sep floor-plan release. (i) GTA 6's release timing was raised by industry analysts as a swing factor for G-STAR's attention butno release date is confirmedin any source consulted — omit unless independently verified.