Report: Game Zone Live UK Trade Show Cancelled

According to UK video game trade magazine MCV, the London-based consumer video game show Game Zone Live (formerly called Game Stars Live) has been cancelled for 2005. Game Zone Live, co-sponsored by UK trade body ELSPA and TIGA (The Independent Game developers Association), was to occur at the ExCeL exhibition center in the Docklands area of London from September 1-4, 2005, and was to be the second holding of the annual show. There has been no official announcement regarding the show's fate, although MCV notes that the organizers "had been hindered by lack of support from Sony, which prefers to run its own PlayStation format events", and Microsoft's support for separate consumer game conference State of Play, to be held in Birmingham from October 14-16. Gamasutra previously reported on the relative confusion of London Games Week 2004, which also included competing video game trade show ECTS being held in a different London location on the same dates, as well as development-related portions for both shows, and commenting of 2004's rivalry: "It's difficult not to see the whole bloated mess as a PR and organizational disaster for the British and European games industry."