[2019 G-Star] Review of the Biggest Korean Game Show of the Year, with Localization Industry’s Perspective

2019-11-21

2019 G-Star, the biggest annual festival of Korean gamers, has been successfully finished.

We, Musai Studio, didn’t have a booth for exhibition but participated in B2B section for 4 days as a visitor. (We do appreciate for all the clients who met us in G-Star! It was such a pleasure to talk face to face rather than e-mail.)

As you know, G-Star is a game exhibition. However, I would like to talk about G-Star in a perspective from localization field, focusing on the changes and trend of B2B section.

The Increase of Game-Service Provider

1. There is no doubt that publishers and developers should be a main character in the B2B exhibition. And game-service providers have taken a supporting role, not spoiling the harmony. Until a few years ago.
2. As the number of participating game-service provider grows every year, it seems like that game-service providers lead the show.
3. It looks like game-service providers including localization, marketing, test, cloud service and outsourcing companies take more than 30% of B2B participants.
4. As for me who working in localization industry, it was great to see the various people in the same field. (Honestly, one of my purpose of traveling G-Star is to see the friends working in game localization field.) Nevertheless, we are here to catch a chance for business, this kind of tendency can’t be fully welcomed.

Domestic Localization Agency VS Global Multi-Language Agency

1. G-Star is as known as the biggest game exhibition in Korea, so more domestic major agencies participated than global agencies.
2. In the case of domestic agencies, the ones specialized on game contents localization are the main participants in the past. However, as for this year, some of major localization agencies who focusing on technical & IT participated in G-Star as well.
3. In the case of global multi-language vendors, the major ones who has a branch office in Korea have taken part in the exhibition from about 4 years ago.
4. Furthermore, in this year especially, the minor multi-language vendors which have no branch in Korea set the booth in the hall for aggressive business purpose. More than 6 agencies participated in this year.

Recording Studio

1. In the case of recording studios, domestic studios focusing on game dubbing projects usually participated in G-Star.
2. For this year, it was seen that not only the studios which have a capability to cover multi-languages, but also some of foreign studios participated.

Conclusion

As for publishers or developers who needs localization service, it was a great chance to be able to meet and compare various both domestic and global agencies at once. On the other hand, in the case of agencies, it became the opportunity to acquire new clients are in decline.

Then, see you again in 2020 G-Star!

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