Busan, November 17 (Yonhap) - South Korea's biggest online gaming fair opened Thursday in the city of Busan, featuring a diverse range of mobile games, which featured virtual reality technology.
A total of 653 game developers and distributors from 35 countries participated in the four-day Global G-Star Games Exhibition, under the motto "Play Next Step."
Among the attendees were South Korean firms Nexon and Netmarble Games, as well as Sony Interactive Entertainment and Taiwanese firm HTC.
Choi Kwan-ho, head of the exhibition's organizing committee, said the fair attracted "a great deal of interest from many companies and that the event will be held on the largest scale in its history."
Reflecting the focus on virtual reality technology in the gaming industry, Choi and Busan City Mayor Suh Byung-soo performed at the opening ceremony through virtual reality goggles.
A Chinese game developer, Longtu Korea, sponsored the event as the first foreign firm to sign an official sponsorship with the annual gaming fair.
Nexon introduced 35 new games, including 16 mobile games, two personal computer games developed by the company and 17 games published by Nexon.
Among the new games is one of the so-called "online multiplayer battlefields" (MOBA), "Hyper Universe", and the new edition of "Need For Speed", nicknamed "Edge".
HTC, meanwhile, presented its plan to sell its virtual reality glasses, Vive, in South Korea.
The Live price in the South Korean market will be 1.25 million won ($ 1,063).
The South Korean unit of Sony Interactive Entertainment plans to reinforce its initiative to publicize the virtual reality of the PlayStation, a videogame console with virtual reality functions.
In its statement, the exhibition's organizing committee said that G-Star "has generated more than $ 200 million in the gaming business every year for four days.
