G-STAR 2026, South Korea’s largest game show, runs from November 19 to 22 at BEXCO in Busan. The main hall this year belongs to Krafton, Webzen, HoYoverse, Google Play, Team42 and main sponsor Crack, while Nexon, NCSoft, Netmarble and Smilegate, which built the biggest pavilions in past years, are not exhibiting. Their absence has made this edition a test of what G-STAR is for once Korea’s largest publishers take their new games to Tokyo and Cologne instead.
The show still has plenty on the floor: hands-on demos from Japanese and European studios, a 250-booth indie area, a narrative-themed conference and an Overwatch regional final. Here is what is confirmed, how to get in, and what to watch from outside Korea.
Dates, Tickets and Getting In
The consumer halls (BTC) are open November 19 to 22, the business halls (BTB) November 19 to 21, and the G-CON conference November 19 to 20. All times are Korea Standard Time (UTC+9). On opening day the hall opens at 11:00, and last admission each day is 17:30.
Consumer tickets are sold only in advance through the official site and app, with no on-site sales. Prices are KRW 18,000 for adults and KRW 8,000 for youth born on or after January 1, 2008, with a limit of two tickets per person per day. Each ticket is valid only on its booked date, and sales close at 23:59 on November 21. Preschool children, people with disabilities and persons of national merit enter free after collecting a ticket at the information center.
Hall 1: Six Giant Booths and a Non-Game Sponsor
Hall 1 holds six spaces of more than 100 booths each, the most the building can fit. They have gone to Crack, Krafton, HoYoverse, Google Play, Webzen and Team42, the studio behind the mystery game Mafia42. Krafton and Webzen are the only major Korean publishers in that group.
Crack is an AI storytelling platform run by Wrtn Technologies, and it is the first main sponsor in G-STAR’s 22-year history that is not a game company. That choice ties into a wider industry argument about AI, covered in our discussion of how AI is changing game production. The center of the hall goes to overseas publishers, including NetEase’s Joker Studio with Sea of Remnants, Century Games and Bandai Namco.
Why Korea’s Biggest Publishers Went to Tokyo
Nexon, Netmarble, NC, Smilegate, NHN and Shift Up all exhibited at Tokyo Game Show in late September, and Krafton and NC showed games at gamescom in August. The Korea Times linked the shift to where the money is: Krafton and NC each drew 52 percent of second-quarter sales from overseas markets, and Nexon earned more than half of its sales abroad. Games built for global PC and console audiences get more out of a launch in Chiba or Cologne than in Busan.
The companies reject the idea of a boycott. Speaking at Tokyo Game Show, Netmarble chairman Bang Jun-hyuk said the company decides where to exhibit by game and market strategy, and that it was not skipping G-STAR as such. The organizing committee, for its part, says it wants the show’s success to stop depending on whether particular majors bring new titles.
That leaves G-STAR competing on a crowded Asian circuit. Gamescom asia x Thailand Game Show runs in Bangkok from October 29 to November 1, three weeks before Busan. The G-STAR committee has partnership deals with Taipei Game Show, Tokyo Game Show and Brazil Game Show, which suggests it now sees itself as one stop on that circuit.
Hall 2: Japanese, European and Indie Demos
Hall 2 debuts the G-STAR Global Game Showcase, where foreign studios run hands-on demos. According to the committee’s floor map announcement, Koei Tecmo brings Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember, Nioh 3 and its next Atelier game. Sega is showing Total War: Warhammer 40,000 in Korea for the first time, plus Crazy Taxi: World Tour and Football Manager 27.
Poland is well represented. CD Projekt Red is running play areas for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077 and will show footage of a Witcher 3 expansion with Korean voice acting. The Polish Embassy and the European Games Developer Federation are also hosting a joint space of Polish indie studios inside the indie area.
That indie area, G-STAR Indie Showcase 2.0: GALAXY, covers 250 booths with 106 developers from Korea and abroad. It includes a curated demo zone, a Devolver Digital publisher zone and a Unity demo zone. NetEase also has a separate brand area in Hall 2 for Once Human and Yanyun.
G-CON and the Overwatch Asia Final
G-CON 2026 takes narrative as its theme and runs in the BEXCO Convention Hall Grand Ballroom, which seats about 1,500. The headline session pairs Macross director Shoji Kawamori with Kim Yong-ha, the Nexon Games executive behind Blue Archive. Developers from Pearl Abyss will also present on the making of Crimson Desert. G-CON requires a separate pass from the consumer ticket.
The BEXCO Auditorium hosts the Overwatch Champions Series Asia Stage 3 Grand Final from November 20 to 22, with qualifiers from Korea, Japan and the Pacific region. Hyundai is also staging the 2026 Hyundai N Virtual Cup grand finals in Hall 2, and the government-run 2026 Game Culture Festival shares the hall under the theme “PLAY K: Playing Korea.”
Following G-STAR From Outside Korea
Two parts of the show are online. G-STAR Premiere, a livestreamed showcase modeled on gamescom’s Opening Night Live, airs on November 18, the day before the halls open. A G-STAR promotion page on Steam collects discounts and titles from exhibitors. This article could not confirm the Premiere’s start time, which the committee is expected to post on the official site.
The BEXCO halls then open at 11:00 KST on Thursday, November 19.