London Games Festival 2018 is set for April. Over the course of this year's event, "over 50,000 people attended 40 different events across 20 different venues". Next year, the organizers are planning a new event and a lot of fresh activities.
That video up there is an hour and 40 minutes long recording of the London Games Festival eSports Summit. Go make some popcorn.
The actual article starts right here: Thanks to the high turnout during this year's London Games Festival, next year's event will run from 05 April to 15 April. We'll go over the highlights planned for 2018 in a bit.
The London Games Festival is organised by Games London. It is a three-year initiative from Film London and video games trade body Ukie. The Mayor of London also backs the project with funding worth £1.2m from the London Enterprise Action Panel, and "seeks to make London the games capital of the world".
London Games
Over the course of the 2017 event, "over 50,000 people attended 40 different events across 20 different venues". It's safe to say that the Festival is already established as a platform for global business in games with the Games Finance Market delivering nearly £20m potential business in April.
It all started back in January 2016 and since then, Games London has connected 145 games businesses in the UK with 109 global investors, driving over £30m potential business back into local companies.
The press release says the 2018 festival will go "even further with a wider programme of outdoor events and an even bigger offering for the games developer community".
London Games
Now, highlights for next year's event include:
- The third Games Finance Market (Tuesday, 10 April to Thursday, 12 April) the only event of its kind in the UK, connecting 60 games studios with 60 global games investors
- Now Play This, the three-day festival of playful work and experimental game design at Somerset House
- London’s largest games event EGX Rezzed (Friday, 13 April to Sunday, 15 April), a showcase of PC and indie games, at Tobacco Dock
- The BAFTA Games Awards on Thursday, 12 April at Troxy
LGF organisers are also planning a new HUB event (Monday, 9 April and Tuesday, 10 April). HUB will be a two-day B2B event housing the Festival’s summits, a demo zone for prototypes and start-ups, a pop-up co-working space and a gallery. More details will follow in September.
London Games
Also to be announced at a later date is a fresh range of activities that bring games to life on the city streets covering esports and street art, plus an exhibition of BAME artists in games and the return of the Games Character Parade. Go for more details.
