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UK games event WASD has closed down, with its parent company Roucan Events & Content Ltd entering liquidation.
The event focused on showcasing indie games, and the latest WASD event at London’s Truman Brewery in April 2024 also hosted the 2024 Digital Schoolhouse Splatoon 3 esports finals.
Co-founder David Lilley told the BBC’s Laura Cress: “Increasing costs and less demand for stand space means running events is just not viable for us anymore.
“I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has supported us along the way.”
The news comes after another UK games event, Insomnia Gaming Festival, entered liquidation earlier this year, and EGX was tagged onto the existing MCM Comic Con, creating a different event to the video games spectacle it once was.
WASD parent company Roucan Events & Content Ltd appointed a voluntary liquidator on October 18th 2024. The website has also expired.
Companies House documents lists Roucan’s creditors and the amounts owed here.
Back in February this year, games media group Network N acquired a controlling stake in Roucan Events & Content Ltd.
Epic.LAN offers space to indie devs at next event
Epic.LAN MD Jon Winkle posted on LinkedIn, saying: “I’ve got no intention of Epic.LAN becoming an expo and even trying to fill the void lost by some of the great events in the last year or so, but what we do have is a hall full of dedicated and passionate gamers.
“So if any of the smaller indie devs/studios want to get some quality time in front of nearly 1,000 people in February to get really valuable feedback on up and coming titles, I’m happy to create a small amount of super low cost space for say 4-5 titles to show off their hard work to a load of gamers.”
London Games Festival announces New Game Plus event for 2025
The sad news of WASD’s closure comes just after the London Games Festival announced a new consumer games expo for 2025.
While the UK does have the aforementioned growing Epic.LAN events, plus an assortment of smaller, localised games events, like the Norwich Games Festival, and various cosplayer, streamer and networking events, plus the Enclave LAN rising from the ashes of Insomnia (not to mention the UK had plenty of big one-off esports events in 2024), it’s lacking an established major consumer games event that happens regularly.
New Game Plus hopes to change that. It will take place on Thursday 3 April and Friday 4 April 2025 at the London Museum’s exhibition spaces on London Wall.
This will showcase upcoming games from around the world across all platforms – including the 30+ games from the festival’s flagship Official Selection.
The event will be open to both the public and professionals, including an industry conference alongside it, with tickets going on sale in December.
Esports News UK understands the festival will be looking at opportunities for esports once again, following the London Games Festival 2024, which kicked off with Resolve Rocket League pro esports players challenging members of the games industry.
More details including programming and game line-up will be announced soon.
“New Game Plus will showcase upcoming games from around the world across all platforms – including the 30+ games from the festival’s flagship Official Selection. The event will be open to both the public and professionals, including an industry conference alongside it, with tickets going on sale in December.”
2024’s festival edition saw over 100,000 people in total taking part, and the 10th anniversary edition of the London Games Festival in 2025 promises to be the biggest yet – with applications open for game submissions. It will run from Wednesday 2 April to Sunday 13 April 2025. It will also showcase the 2025 Ensemble exhibition.
A number of other core festival events have been locked in for 2025 as well – including the BAFTA Games Awards, Now Play This, the Games Finance Market, convergence conference Screen Play, plus LGF’s annual Trafalgar Square activities (which could be ideal for esports).
London Games Festival is supported by the Mayor of London and is delivered by Games London, an initiative from Film London, the capital’s screen industries agency, and video games trade body Ukie.
Applications are now open for game and project submissions into the festival’s Official Selection and Games Finance Market programmes. The lobbying process has also started for Ensemble, which every year showcases games talent from Black, Asian and underrepresented ethnicities and acts as a touring exhibition that starts at key LGF events before appearing at other UK sites.
The games community across the UK will also have the opportunity to add more events to the festival schedule to ensure the widest possible reach of this annual celebration of games. Applications are also open for Side Events, a stream of the festival which officially runs from Monday 7 April to Sunday 13 April.
All application forms can be found at the LGF festival platform, live at https://festival.games.london.
The full confirmed London Games Festival 2025 schedule so far
- New Game Plus – Thursday 2 April & Friday 3 April. A new expo featuring games across all platforms from around the world.
- BAFTA Games Awards – Tuesday 8 April. Celebrating the very best games of the past year and the people who made them.
- Games Finance Market – Tuesday 8 April & Wednesday 9 April. Connecting games studios with investors over two days of pre-programmed meetings.
- Screen Play – Thursday 10 April. Exploring the creative collaborations and crossover between games and other screen mediums
- Now Play This – Thursday 10 April to Sunday 13 April. A festival of experimental game design celebrating London’s most innovative game-makers.
- Trafalgar Square Games Festival – LGF’s flagship event in the public realm expects to return to the historic site with free games and outdoor activities at the end of the 2025 festival.
- Side Events – Monday 7 April to Sunday 13 April. An accompanying strand of community-organised pop-up and cultural events running at various sites across the city.
The schedule also includes private invite-only events for professionals including an opening night celebration on Wednesday 2 April and the exclusive VIP 100 for global games execs later during the festival.
For more information by London Games Festival and Games London, head to www.games.london or follow @londongamesfest.
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.
