2024 PlayX4 Gaming Festival to Open at KINTEX Korea in May 

Gyeonggi Province has announced the “2024 PlayX4“, a gaming festival in the Seoul metropolitan area, with pre-registration now available until May 22, 2024. 

The 2024 PlayX4 is scheduled to take place from 23rd May 2024 to 26th May 2024 at the KINTEX Exhibition Center in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. 

Titled “Beyond the Joy of Gaming”, the event “embodies the desire for gaming to become a platform for communication beyond mere enjoyment.”

Attendees can enjoy various indie games at the event, along with a variety of attractions related to gaming equipment and more. Furthermore, small and indie game developers can seize this opportunity to participate in online and offline business matching sessions, with participation from diverse overseas buyers, to expand internationally. In addition, there will be career information sessions with major gaming companies available for students. 

For those looking to watch exciting matches, the esports tournaments will be taking place on the esports festival stage, which includes tournaments for disabled gamers, campus competitions for university students, event matches to discover games suitable for esports adaptation, and the grand finals of popular esports leagues.

There will also be an export consultation session, which will run online and offline simultaneously, providing interpretation services and pre-arranged business matching for participating Korean developers. The online business matching will be available 24/7, with consideration of the working hours of game distribution and publishing professionals in regions like North America and Europe. 

This year’s event has also seen a record-breaking number of participants, with more than 35% more new developers joining than the previous year. In just two weeks of the pre-registration opening on the PlayX4 website, over 150 overseas buyers from 25 countries, including China, Japan, Southeast Asia, Europe, North America, and the Middle East, have already confirmed their participation. 

Microsoft’s Xbox and Japan’s SEGA have also confirmed their attendance. Aside from the two major console companies, representatives from various regions such as indie publishers Nicalis and Tilting Point from the United States, global video game distributor 505 Games from Italy, leading PC online game publisher Gameforge from Germany, Bilibili from China, Xiabangxiabang Games, Garena, Megaxus Infotech from Indonesia, VTV Live from Vietnam, Electronics Extreme, and Zen Play from Thailand, will also attend the event.

Jeep Barnett, one of the developers of the Portal series from Valve, will also participate in the event for his first official mentoring session and fan meeting with B2B participating developers at the Korean gaming show. Moreover, the organizing committee of the Thailand Game Show will visit the B2B section directly.

A special section prepared by Korean companies CJ ENM and Smilegate’s Stove Indie with a focus on content expansion through IP utilization will also be operated. Something highly valued by the Gyeonggi Province. Overseas companies, including eStarplay, a game specialist company in China nicknamed Samsung in the Indian market regarding global mobile sales. Meanwhile, bilibili, is also discussing establishing special sections. They also explore various expansion avenues such as OTT, ANIMATION, and short-form content through gaming IP. 

Additionally, the PlayX4 export consultation session as mentioned earlier, will operate in the traditional B2B format and incorporate B2C to allow developers to promote their content to the general public. Over half of the approximately 150 game developers participating in this export consultation session are expected to join B2C activities, allowing the public to experience the games firsthand. 

During the B2C period, which includes job fairs, various companies housed in the Gyeonggi Content Agency, such as board game and VR companies, will be participating. 

Those pre-registering from now until 22 May 2024, will be able to enter the venue for free. However, participants who do not pre-register can enter on the day of the event with admission fees of 7,000 won for adults and 5,000 won for students, with a 50% discount available for Gyeonggi Province residents. 

“This event is a festival where families and couples can experience visual enjoyment in the city during May, the month of family,” said Kim Tae-geun, head of the Digital Innovation Department “We hope everyone can experience various games’ diverse charm and healing.” 

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