The return of the London Games Festival

gamesindustry.biz:

James Batchelor

Editor-in-Chief

Thursday 3rd March 2022

By the end of London Games Festival 2019, more than 97,000 people had attended its events across the city. It was a solid number for an event that was only four years old, and the team behind it was exploring ways to take it past 100,000.

Then the pandemic happened.

As with so many events, the festival shifted to an digital-only model for 2020 and 2021, hosting activity and content online to keep awareness high and continue connecting developers with publishers and investors as best it could.

But far from stunting the event, festival director and head of Games London Michael French tells us the online iterations attracted new audiences, opened new opportunities and "gave us further credence." As such, things are looking up as his team prepares to bring the London Games Festival back to both the capital and browsers next month.

Michael French, Games London

"Current indications are pretty strong on people coming in person," he tells GamesIndustry.biz. "But people online or more remote have said that being able to connect with the festival digitally for the last two years has actually helped them get into it in a way that they possibly wouldn't have if they were only allowed to come in person. That's one of the things we've been really mindful of."

2022 will mark the seventh London Games Festival since the event was revived in 2016. Organised by Games London, a division of Film London, and part funded by the Mayor of London's office, the event -- or rather ten-day collection of events -- aims to both support and raise awareness of the games industry ecosystem within the city. French believe this gives the festival a more specific purpose than other events, and comments on how