One of South Korea’s representative game events, PlayX4, is set to be held from 23 May 2024 to 26 May 2024 at KINTEX Exhibition Center 1 in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province.

The event is hosted by the Gyeonggi Province and organized by the Gyeonggi Content Agency and KINTEX.

Amounting to $8.98175 billion, South Korea’s game export volume is ranked fourth globally with the Gyeonggi Province being the center of the Korean game industry, accounting for $8.1 billion (about 48%) of the country’s game market sales of approximately $16.2 billion. Gyeonggi Province also is home to many notable Korean game companies such as Nexon, NCSOFT, Neowiz, NHN, Smilegate, Kakao Games, Pearl Abyss, Wemade, and Webzen.

Since 2009, PlayX4 has evolved into a game show that encompasses various countries, with 2023 B2B Export Consultation attracting 428 global companies from 25 countries, achieving contract promotion worth approximately $146 million.

For this year, developer booths sold out in record time, and there is an increase of 25% in new developers compared to the previous year. Within two weeks of opening the pre-registration homepage, over 150 companies from overseas have applied to participate as buyers, including China, Japan, Southeast Asia, Europe, North America, and the Middle East, totaling around 260 companies. 

Notably, Microsoft’s Xbox and Japan’s SEGA have confirmed their participation. Additionally, other notable participating companies include:

• US-based indie publisher Nicalis
• Tilting Point, one of America’s top 10 publishers
• Italy’s video game distributor 505 Games
• Germany’s leading PC online game publisher Gameforge
• China’s Bilibili
• China’s XiabangXiabang games
• Southeast Asia’s leading publisher Garena
• Indonesia’s Megaxus Infotech, the publisher of Lineage 2 
• Vietnam’s state-run broadcaster and e-sports company VTV Live
• Thailand’s leading publishers Electronics Extreme and Zen Play

Furthermore,  the organizing committee of the Thailand Game Show will be visiting the B2B event directly to set up a special pavilion. Meanwhile, US-based Gaming Trend and Malaysia’s GamerBraves will participate as global media partners, showcasing PlayX4’s growing stature.

Placing importance on IP utilization and various content expansions, the Gyeonggi Province will operate a special pavilion at the event. On the other hand, overseas companies such as eStarplay, a game company under China’s Transsion, sometimes dubbed the Samsung of the Indian market, and TapTap, a China’s app marketplace, are discussing setting up a special pavilion. Meanwhile, domestic Korean companies CJ ENM, NHN, and Smilegate’s Stove Indie are also preparing special pavilions.

Since the 2022 PlayX4, the export consultation has been established online and offline, providing basic interpretation and pre- and on-site business matching for participating domestic developers. Especially for online business matching, there will be 24-hour support considering overseas game distribution and publishing personnel’s working hours in Europe and the Americas. 

This year, various programs have been prepared for participating companies besides the traditional export consultation. Jeep Barnett, the developer behind Valve’s popular Portal series will be attending the event to provide talks and fan meetings. In addition, the Gyeonggi Future Technology Game Activation Forum, a startup IR pitching demo day for game investment and company discovery will also be available.

The Gyeonggi Game Audition will also be available, allowing the discovery of game content that has yet to be released. There will also be a job fair hosted by some of the leading Korean game companies such as Com2us and Pearl Abyss. 

The 2024 PlayX4 will be operating B2C concurrently on weekends, which allows developers to promote their content to the general public widely. Of the approximately 165 game development companies participating in this exhibition, more than half will also join B2C. This provides the opportunity for the general public to experience the games directly and provide feedback to the developers. 

Moreover, board game and VR companies will also participate, further enriching the diversity of the 2024 PlayX4.

Thus, the 2024 PlayX4 will become a platform for innovation and growth where global game industry leaders gather as an international business network. It will be the optimal place to discover new partnerships and business opportunities. If you want to catch the leading global game industry trend, we encourage you to participate in the 2024 PlayX4.

Summary 

• Schedule: May 23, 2024 (Thu) – May 26, 2024 (Sun) / 4 days
• Venue: KINTEX Exhibition Center 1, Hall 5, Ilsan 

• How it works
  • Choose between B2B or a combination of B2B & B2C
  • B2B can choose between offline or online attendance
  • A video conferencing space will be set up at the offline venue for online business matching
  • Offline participants can engage in both online/offline business matching
  • Online 1:1 meetings are conducted in 30-minute slots
  • 24-hour business matching support for online participation
• Registration: Sign up on playx4.or.kr
•  Registration Fee: Free for both offline (including booth participation) and online participation