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¡Ì The biggest show ever: 198 exhibitors from 21 countries (102 local, 96 international)

¡Ì New venue: BEXCO in Busan

¡Ì Introducing age verified wristbands for underage attendees

¡Ì Activision Blizzard joined for the first time

¡Ì N1H1-free campaign

Busan, Korea ¨C November 24, 2009 - The 5th annual G-Star (G¡ï) 2009, South Korea¡¯s largest game convention, will open in BEXCO located in Busan, South Korea for 4 days from November 26th to 29th. The convention is organized by Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) and Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency (BIPA) and sponsored by Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

This year G-Star moved its venue to Busan after four years in the Seoul metropolitan area. The G-Star chose Busan because Busan has already built up an infrastructure for large-scale conventions as the city has hosted Pusan Film Festival and eSports finals every year.

New to G-Star 2009 is a customized booth for Content Industry, Next Gen Game, Career in Games, Online Games, Arcade Games, Game companies in Busan, and even a daycare center for the family with young children.

Also, G-Star 2009 made extra efforts to make the convention more family-friendly. A strict dress code for booth models and age verified wristbands are introduced new to this year¡¯s convention.

G-Star 2009 welcomes more than 198 exhibitors and sponsors which is jumped from 162 last year. The first-time participant Activision Blizzard as well as South Korean first-tier publishers such as NCsoft, NHN, Nexon are going to offer a glimpse of their upcoming games; Activision Blizzard showcases playable versions of StarCraft2 and Diablo 3, while NCsoft unveils Blade & Soul. NHN shows the highly anticipated game Tera, and Nexon shows Dragon Quest and four other games.

This year 93 international exhibitors from 20 countries open their booths to public as well as explore business opportunities with other companies.

G-Star 2009 offers a range of events such as Game & Game World Championship 2009 (GNGWC 2009), 2009 International Contents Creator¡¯s Conference (ICON 2009), Game OST Concert, National Board Game Tournament, and 1080 Family Event. At GNGWC 2009, players from 5 countries including Germany, Korea, Brazil, Japan and U.S.A will compete for the grand prize while ICON 2009 presents the latest trends and technology in games, animation, visual arts. 1080 Family Event is open for everyone who enjoys games.