Games Festival Goodness

Found info on two(!) upcoming UK consumer games festivals, both being held in October for some reason. The newest one is Game City which will be held in Nottingham over the 25th to 29th October 2006 and the other is the London Games Festival I posted about back in March, which will be held over the 2nd to the 7th October 2006

Game City have a website but there’s nothing more than a sign-up for email announcements at the moment.

The London Games Festival website is marginally more informative while remaining completely obscure. At the moment the consumer events consist of:

• Face-Off Tournaments at HMV Oxford Street (“exact timings, events and games to be confirmed”).
• Cinema Showdown at VUE cinemas (“a series of online battles, playing the best games of the year on massive cinema screens”).
• Something vague called Launch Pad at 01ZeroOne (“workshops, discussions, debates, masterclasses and playing games”).
• The Dragon’s Den(“open to anyone who has a great idea for a video game, and wants the chance to pitch it to the top people in the industry.”) Hopefully they’ll be a little nicer than Pop Idol judges or this event will really live up to its name.
• The BAFTA Video Games Awards.
• The London Game Careers Fair.

October could be very exciting. Equally, it could be month of gatherings for over-competitive idiots to shout “OWNZORED” at each other. I’m hoping for the former.

I suppose while I’m on the topic I should mention the Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival which will be held on the 21st and 22nd August 2006. (When is interactive entertainment not a game?) Their only non-industry-only event appears to be Game Screenings on the 22nd. Not much gaming interaction there so not much interest from me.

Websites to watch:

London Games Festival
Game City
Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival