Boris Johnson recently revealed plans for Games London, an international video games festival to give developers the opportunity to showcase their games. In Minecraft form, the mayor of London announced that the games festival will take place in the first 2 weeks of April, backed with a £1.2 million investment. This follows a successful year in gaming for the UK, having made £2.8 billion in revenue last year, which was more significant than the music or film sector. With Games London hoping to increase the coverage of UK hubs, this could benefit Wale’s games industry significantly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xTaoGkvDWM
Games London will bring global attention to the UK on April, and so could provide the perfect platform for local developers to show off their games. Wales Interactive benefited hugely from large game conferences such as GDC San Francisco and Gamescom Cologne in 2015, and were recently able to distribute their game Infinity Runner in Japan. But not all game developers are able to attend such conferences, due to travel and ticket costs.
The Welsh government recently offered local game developers funds so they could cover the costs of attending GDC in San Francisco for 2016. This illustrates how difficult it is for small, independent video game companies who don’t have the budget to attend international festivals/conferences, yet need the exposure of a global audience. With Games London, travel expenses will be kept to a minimum and so have few obstacles for small independent games to show the world their new games.
Games London is also a great opportunity for Welsh gamers. It’s been difficult for gamers to attend gaming conferences all over the world, due to both financial and time constraints. Now the UK will host a global event, so local gamers will be given the opportunity to attend such gaming conferences and feel more involved in the gaming community. With the medium gaining more respect and attention, gaming is becoming more popular and events such as Games London may encourage more people to get involved. This will only benefit the industry.
Games London may also put more of a spotlight on independent games from the UK, rather than the blockbusters that we are already accustomed to. Hopefully we will see some Welsh games make an appearance on the big stage and potentially people all over the world could start talking about the emerging gaming hub in Wales.
words RYAN JONES