On the evening of June 7 at the Dubai World Trade Center (DWTC) in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, neon signs glowed in the darkness filling four exhibition halls, while the cheers of esports broadcasts mixed with the clatter of mechanical keyboards. Young people in cosplay and families holding their children's hands lined up in front of demo stations. This was the final day of "Dubai GameExpo 2026," billed as the Middle East's largest gaming festival.
GameExpo is the flagship event of the "Dubai Esports & Games Festival (DEF)," hosted by the Dubai Festivals and Retail Establishment (DFRE) under the Department of Economy and Tourism (DET). This year it covered the final three days of a 17-day festival running from May 22 to June 7. With more than 300 game experiences, the Japanese anime theme zone "Neo Tokyo," the "Future Lab" where games are controlled by brainwaves, and a cosplay competition with total prize money of 50,000 dirhams (about 19 million won), the event lacked nothing in terms of attractions, by most accounts.
◾Demo Stations Packed, Yet Global Game Companies Nowhere in Sight
The problem emerges once you make a lap around the venue. Demo machines for popular titles line up one after another, yet the booths of Capcom, EA, and Nintendo—the companies that actually made these games—are nowhere to be found. There were no new-title launch stages and no exclusive demos. The names of Korean game companies such as Nexon, NCSoft, and Krafton were also absent. Compared with G-Star or the Tokyo Game Show, where major publishers and developers compete with new titles, the gap in stature as an industry exhibition was stark. The layout resembled a large PC bang with consoles and monitors lined up in rows. Contrary to Dubai's ambition to be a "global gaming hub," its leap to becoming an international game show once again fell short.
There is, of course, room for mitigating circumstances. Local industry observers attribute the reluctance of overseas companies to participate on a large scale to the freezing of the Middle East situation amid the recent war originating from Iran. At a time when air routes are unstable, few global game companies would send equipment and personnel into the heart of the Middle East. However, given that the void was filled not with new titles or industry content but with experiences and events such as laser tag, a Lego challenge, and car giveaways, the event's character was closer to a family-oriented entertainment festival than a game show.
The ones who salvaged some meaning were the local developers. Seventeen Dubai-based studios brought their self-developed games, and an Emirati studio's survival horror game made headlines after surpassing 10,000 downloads within three months of releasing its Steam demo. The developer's CEO told the local daily Khaleej Times, "I wanted to make a game that represents Arabs." It signals that the UAE, which had remained a consumer market, has begun to grow a production ecosystem.
◾The Korea Pavilion: It Had the Trappings, But...
Amid that chaotic void, what stood out was the Korea Pavilion. The Hallyu promotion hall "Korea360," operated mainly by the Korea Creative Content Agency, set up a booth on one side of the GameExpo venue. In a venue where all the global majors were absent, Korea was effectively the only country to hold a spot on a national level.
The Korea Pavilion itself helped fill out the makeup of an international event. The booth, decorated with traditional Korean window-lattice patterns, bustled with visitors throughout the three days. Locals lined up for a bicycle game in which AI measured the amount of exercise and an AI dance challenge in which visitors performed K-pop choreography alongside illustrated characters resembling themselves, while K-food and goods sold from the stalls.
But to put it bluntly, the Korea Pavilion set up at a game show had no Korean games. It is hard to escape the criticism of being an "egg without a yolk." Belying Korea's standing as a gaming powerhouse, there was no demonstration of titles from famous domestic developers, nor any indie games from small and mid-sized studios.
It succeeded in drawing footsteps with experiential content and Hallyu goods, but it lacked the next step to connect those footsteps to the Korean game industry. It just so happened to be a stage that all the competitors had vacated. Had Korea joined hands with domestic game companies and brought even just a few titles, it would have been a rare opportunity to imprint the presence of Korean games on the Middle East market. That it leaned toward experiences without preparation was all the more regrettable for that reason.
Even so, the effort to quietly hold its spot and brighten the venue at a time when the majors had pulled out deserves a positive assessment. It is the sentiment of this region to long remember those who stayed by your side during difficult times. The UAE, too, will not easily forget Korea, which filled a stage that everyone else had left. The trust built up that way is an asset that no marketing can buy. Using this as a springboard, Korean game companies should next stand on this stage with their titles in hand themselves.
He is…
After covering industry and the economy as a journalist in Korea, he moved to Dubai in 2017 and currently works as a pilot for Air Arabia. He analyzes the industrial, political, and cultural environments of wealthy Gulf states including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. He graduated from Yonsei University with a degree in economics and earned a master's degree in arts management from the Korea National University of Arts. He has written books including "The Middle East, Closer Than You Think" and "The United Arab Emirates As It Is."
