Games Market Europe Announces Initial Exhibitors

Organizers of the Games Market Europe trade event have announced that the first four exhibitors signed up for the new trade show will be NCsoft, Codemasters, Ubisoft and Bunea Vista Games. The event is due to take place on August 31st and September 1st at London’s Business Design Centre. With the cancellation of ELSPA’s EGN event and the long-running ECTS show, Games Market Europe will now be the only video game trade show in the UK this year, following the debacle of last year’s conflicting events. Many in the UK industry have subsequently voiced concerns that the country would lose its importance within the European market, especially with increasingly important rival shows in Cannes and Leipzig, Germany. Games Market Europe, though, is a collaboration between PR and event organizers Barrington Harvey and Tandem Events, a new venture being headed up by Andy Lane, who held the position of event director of ECTS over the last ten years. The Games Market Europe website recently launched and is currently accepting registrations for the event. The event will run at the same time as the 5th annual Game Developers Conference Europe (owned by CMP, as is Gamasutra), which is due to take place between August 30th and September 1st at London's Le Meridien Hotel, and which recently announced keynote speakers including SCEE's executive vice president of development Phil Harrison and Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi, as well as sessions from the developers of Killzone, Singstar, and Project Gotham Racing 3.