G-Star 2019, the biggest annual game convention in Korea, is to see attendance from a slew of notable players in the game industry, but several will be missing from the picture.

Biggest local game companies Nexon and NCSoft are not participating in this year’s event, with the former citing a desire to focus on its games in development and the latter citing the need to direct all its time and manpower to the imminent launch of its new mobile game Lineage2M.

Smilegate and Kakao Games have also opted to sit out from this year’s G-Star. 

Among the three major Korean telecom companies, only LG Uplus is participating, with SK Telecom and KT opting out. Uplus is anticipated to showcase a streaming game.

Global game streaming site Twitch, which had served as G-Star’s global media partner until last year, is absent from G-Star 2019.

The gaps resulting from the aforementioned companies’ absence will be filled by Pearl Abyss, Netmarble, Krafton and Gravity.

WeMade is not opening a business-to-consumer booth, but will open a business-to-business space. Chinese companies Mihoyo and X.D. Global are participating.

Both Unity Technologies and Epic Games, powerhouses of game developing software programs Unity and Unreal Engine, respectively, will be present.

Supercell, the Tencent-owned Finnish game company that is behind Clash of Clans, will open a booth as the Main Sponsor of G-Star 2019, as will Krafton as the Platinum Sponsor and Google Play as Gold Sponsor.

The Google Play booth will be shared by YouTube and the Korea Institute of Startup and Entrepreneurship Development.

A game industry job fair will take place at the G-Star venue on Saturday of the event week, where many students and aspiring programmers will seek matchmaking with future employers.

The overall floor plan of G-Star 2019 has shifted compared to a year prior, due to the Korea-ASEAN Summit slated to take place at the Convention Hall at Bexco around the time.

The G-Star 2019 organizing committee said it will make up for the missing Convention Hall space by utilizing outdoor areas.

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)