BUSAN ― As the country’s largest game trade show G-Star launched on Thursday, it showcased games designed exclusively for smartphones, the most attention-grabbing trend for this year.

Mobile game firm Com2us, which set up its booths at G-Star for the first time, featured up to 15 new mobile games, including “Tiny Farm,” “Escape the Ape,” “Puzzle Family” and “MiniGame Paradise.”

“The competitiveness and graphic quality of mobile games are now meeting users’ expectations,” said a Com2us official.

Wemade Entertainment, an online game firm, took the initiative at the game exhibition to present mobile games, such as “Chaos and Defense,” “Pet Island” and “Rhythm Scandal” among others.

The move to shift to mobile games was highlighted by the nation’s top game company NEXON which unveiled “Combat Arms,” the first-person shooter game for smartphones, along with another game for Apple’s iPhone called the Space Tank.

The rise of mobile games comes as the number of smartphone users has recently topped the 20 million mark, indicating four out of every 10 people are smartphone owners.

Last week, Apple’s game category also reopened for Korean users, forcing mobile game companies to engage in a fierce competition to garner a bigger share in the local game industry.

Google’s Android mobile platform is also expected to add the game category as Google chairman Eric Schmidt said the event will take place soon during his visit in Seoul earlier this week.

G-Star is the country’s biggest international game trade show that presents a wide array of arcade, board and console game along with online and mobile games at BEXCO in Busan until Nov. 13.

This year, 380 game companies from 28 nations are taking part in the trade show, underway for its seventh year.

Not only big names in the local gaming industry like NEXON, NCsoft, Neowiz Games, NHN Hangame, Blizzard Entertainment but smaller game firms such as Com2us, Wemade Entertainment and CJ Entertainment and Media are displaying a load of new mobile and online games that will be mostly introduced in the market by the first half of next year.

Neowiz Games, the official sponsor of this year’s G-Star, showcased a new third-person shooter named DIZZEL as well as two MMORPG games dubbed BLESS and EIN, while NEXON, another local big name, promoted its 3-D MMORPG game “Epic of the Three Kingdoms.”

NCsoft rolled out the Korean version of its MMORPG game Guild Wars 2 for the first time in Korea along with Lineage Eternal, which was the first showcase globally.

Meanwhile, NHN Hangame unveiled three of its newly most promoted games, which are the soccer game “Winning Eleven Online,” plus “Metro Conflict” and “Kingdom Under Fire.”

By Cho Ji-hyun (sharon@heraldcorp.com)