EGX Rezzed launches the London Games Festival with more games and more visitors than ever before
EGX Rezzed launched the London Games Festival in style, welcoming thousands of gamers and the cream of the UK industry to London’s historic Tobacco Dock. Attendance figures smashed previous records for the three-day event, and confirmed EGX Rezzed’s status as London’s biggest gaming show.
EGX Rezzed – powered by Virgin Media – delivered almost 500 screens showing more than 220 playable games on PC and console, and the largest showcase of indie games in the world. The show’s enviable track record of keynote speakers continued, with BioShock creator Ken Levine opening the developer sessions in conversation with Eurogamer’s Oli Welsh, discussing plans for his next game at his new company Ghost Story Games.
Alongside the games EGX Rezzed also provided plenty of excitement in the form of huge announcements with Creative Assembly unveiling the hotly anticipated Total War: Warhammer II due later this year, the debut of The Room, and more announcements.
Global hands-on exclusives included original DayZ creator Dean Hall revealing his new game Stationeers, White Paper Games’ brand new game The Occupation, and Square Enix Collective also showed its forthcoming multiplayer first-person shooter Battalion 1944 to delighted fans. The show also boosted Europe’s first hands-on for Tacoma from Fullbright and Tequila Works’ hugely anticipated upcoming third-person adventure and puzzle game Rime. Nintendo also drew excited crowds as they showcased the first play for of indie games on its new Nintendo Switch console.
The show also launched Overwatch The Road to EGX played on HP Omen, a series of cups leading up to the final in September and forming one of the many esports elements of EGX in Birmingham. The first qualifier was won by Hoggy Hogs. EGX Rezzed has also become a place for the European games industry to do business. At the inaugural GamesIndustry.biz “Meet the Indies” event, over 233 curated meetings were held between developers and publishers, investors and service companies. The GamesIndustry.biz 100 party celebrated the most prominent and important people in the UK games industry.
Rupert Loman, CEO of EGX Rezzed parent company Gamer Network added, “Although this was the biggest and best Rezzed to date, in terms of both attendees and exhibitors, we have been really pleased to see that the atmosphere of the show has remained uniquely inclusive and fun. The feedback we’ve had from gamers, exhibitors and speakers has been overwhelmingly positive and we would like to thanks all of our partners, sponsors and exhibitors for helping us to create another outstanding experience for UK gamers.”
EGX 2017 will take place from the 21st to 24th September at the NEC in Birmingham. Tickets are now on sale at www.egx.net/egx .
EGX Rezzed will return to London in 2018. Dates and location will be announced soon.
