With the situation around Covid somewhat stabilising, more events are filling up the games calendar in the UK this year.
In particular, Manchester will play host to a couple of new gaming events in 2022 – the Format industry social/nightlife event and GSCon, a convention featuring meet-and-greets with creators, awards and esports.
Format aims to be ‘the UK’s biggest games industry community nightlife event’
Format – previously known as Manchester Gamers Unite – will host its next event in April 2022 after a two-year break.
‘Format Manchester – The Ultimate Gaming Social’ will take place at Impossible in Manchester on Thursday April 21st 2022 from 6pm to late. It’s billed as a ‘nightlife movement for gamers and non-gamers alike’, bringing together B2B and B2C audiences.
It will feature two floors of gaming, with game developers and creators to meet, food and drink, entertainment artists, music, and prize giveaways. Developers, brands and community leaders will be able to showcase to their audiences live, with devs receiving showcase space free of charge.
Devs in attendance will include Merge Games, Spilt Milk Studios, Rezzil, Humble Games, Super Rare Games and others.
Organisers say other partners and brands involved at the event include Ubisoft, Sony, EA, GameByte, Fierce PC, Alienware, Overclockers, Merge Games, noblechairs, Sold Out and more.
There is alcohol at the event, and any under 16s must be accompanied by a person over the age of 18.
Organisers say mask-wearing is ‘highly recommended’ and visitors must present proof of either a vaccination or a negative lateral flow test.
Previous events drew hundreds of attendees, and organisers hope to host other similar events across the UK. The MD of Format is Simran Whitham.
Tickets cost £4 each (plus booking fee) and there’s more info on the Format website.
GSCon to feature creator meet-and-greets, cosplay competition, D&D & esports
GSCon is a new gaming convention featuring a mix of activities.
It will take place on the weekend of August 6th and 7th 2022 at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Scott W3K will be joining GSCon and hosting esports competitions at the event.
There will also be creator meet-and-greets, awards, a cosplay competition and D&D.
For the awards, there are trophies and medals up for grabs. Five nominees are up for the main award – GSCON creator of the year – while the rest of the awards are open to the community who can recommed and vote for nominees.
The Creator of the Year nominees were picked by organisers based on the following criteria: community spirit, regular streams, professionalism, engagement, stream design, chat interaction and entertainment.
Matt Bowen, founder of GSCon, told Esports News UK: “We don’t have a team or staff – I work around the clock 18 hours a day as we are not-for-profit and don’t expect anyone to work for free – it’s all about the community.”
Weekend tickets are priced from £35 and there’s more info on the GSCon website.
Related content: In other recent Manchester-based esports news, Kairos Group acquired Manchester-based gaming content and esports organisation Horizon Union.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
