G-Star Expands Scope with AI and Narrative... Lytteon Named as Main Sponsor

First Non-Gaming Main Sponsor... Hyundai Also Participates
Krafton and Other Major Domestic Game Companies Expected to Withdraw
Cho Youngki: "Satisfaction of Exhibitors and Visitors Is More Important"

G-Star, Korea’s largest game show, has selected artificial intelligence (AI) and narrative as its core keywords for this year. In line with this, Lytteon, a non-gaming company, will serve as the main sponsor.

'G-STAR 2026' Key Visual. Provided by G-STAR Organizing Committee

Lytteon becomes the first non-gaming company to serve as G-Star’s main sponsor... Concerns over absence of major gaming companies

Cho Youngki, Chairman of the Korea Association of Game Industry and Head of the G-Star Organizing Committee, stated at a press conference for 'G-Star 2026' held at COEX in Gangnam-gu, Seoul on August 13, "This year's G-Star aims to discover convergence content that transcends boundaries and connects various industries, and we have significantly strengthened in-house content that we plan and operate ourselves. We have explored various ways to ensure a substantial event that reflects rapidly changing global gaming trends."

This year’s G-Star will take place at BEXCO in Busan from November 19 to 22. On the eve of the opening, the ‘Korea Game Awards’ ceremony will be held, and from the 19th to the 20th, the main conference (G-CON) will take place. As the main sponsor, Lytteon, which operates the character-based AI chatbot service ‘Crack,’ will participate. The key visual for G-Star was co-produced by Lee Donggeon, the artist famous for the popular webtoon 'Yumi’s Cells.'

This is the first time since G-Star’s inception that a general IT company, which does not directly develop or service games, has taken on the main sponsorship. Jeong Seungwoo, committee office chief, said, “The core strategy is expanding the scope, targeting both industry and audience. Whereas previously, most visitors were limited to gamers, the future direction is to embrace not only gamers but also people who enjoy comics and content, while expanding our own content offering.”

According to the organizing committee, in the main exhibition hall (Hall 1, B2C), participation has been confirmed by Lytteon’s ‘Crack,’ Google Play, Webzen, and Team42. Major Chinese game companies such as HoYoverse, NetEase Joker Studio, Bilibili, and Century Games will also run large booths. Although the final lineup has not yet been decided, a considerable number of large domestic game companies are reportedly not participating in the B2C exhibition.

The ‘Indie Showcase 2.0: Galaxy,’ held in the second exhibition hall, will feature overseas game publishers and platform companies such as Devolver, Unity, Steam Deck, and Discord, who will interact with visitors. The G-Star new title demo area, sponsored by Intel, will be filled with companies such as SEGA and Koei Tecmo.

The organizing committee noted that due to a simultaneous decrease in exhibition size and visitor numbers last year, there is growing talk of a crisis for G-Star. They believe that redefining what constitutes a global game company and establishing a unique identity for G-Star is necessary.

Chairman Cho stated, "When it comes to world premieres, there simply aren’t that many new titles large gaming companies can reveal at G-Star. Rather than focusing solely on the number of participating domestic or international game companies, it is more important to make this an event that both exhibitors and visitors can be satisfied with."

Hyundai Motor Company participating in 'G-Star 2026'. Photo by Kyungjo Noh

'Narrative' as a Theme... Renowned film and game creators to participate in G-Star

At G-CON, Jang Hangjun, director of the film ‘The Man Living with the King,’ and Lee Byungheon, director of ‘Extreme Job,’ will appear as speakers and discuss narratives in the era of AI. Park Inje, who directed ‘Moving’ and ‘Kingdom,’ and Cho Yonghee, the director overseeing this year’s hit title ‘Pragmata’ from Japanese game company Capcom, will also offer insights spanning the content industry.

Famous international game developers will also attend G-CON, including Yoshinori Kitase, director of Square Enix’s ‘Final Fantasy VII Remake,’ and Marcin Blacha, who manages ‘The Witcher’ series at CD Projekt Red (CDPR) in Poland.

This year, G-Star will introduce a new ‘Online Showcase’ featuring new game trailers, benchmarking overseas events such as ‘Summer Game Fest’ and ‘The Game Awards (TGA).’ Office chief Jeong explained, “As a latecomer, we are planning to run about two sessions, focusing in depth on a small number of games for 20 to 30 minutes each.”

Collaboration with Hyundai Motor Company is also being emphasized. Hyundai will host a simulated racing game tournament and event booth on-site at G-Star, and its N brand high-performance vehicles and race cars will also be exhibited.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.