City to host games industry extravaganza as FORMATGG expands
One of Europe’s biggest games industry community nightlife festival is heading to Liverpool later this year.
FORMATGG will stage three evenings in the city, covering September 25-27, involving the chance for participants to play UK and international games, publisher pitching, meeting game industry stars and community leaders, live music talent from across the UK, and participating in Europe’s fastest-growing games industry nightlife movement.
The event is going multiregional, having previously staged events in Manchester.
Over the past eight years, FORMATGG has grown from a small gamers and game developers meet-up taking place in Manchester’s Northern Quarter to a goliath of a games industry event housing some of the world’s leading games industry brands, studios, community leaders, businesses, music artists, technology, and more, which sees up to 1,500 attendees across all three nights of its event season.
FORMATGG acts as a platform to unite the game development, content creation, and gaming community of the video games, media, tech, and entertainment industries, uniting businesses and individuals alike through a blend of video game and traditional nightlife culture.
The event attracts consumers and delegates from all over the UK, Europe, US, Asia, India, who try out the latest video game and technology releases from AAA, AA, and indie game studios, against a backrop of live music and performance entertainment.
FORMATGG’s founder and CEO, Simran Whitham, said: “This is the announcement I have waited years to make, the northern games industry is criminally underrepresented compared to its southern counterpart, and yet we produce some of the greatest creative projects, talent, and initiatives across the world in games, TV, film, music, and more, and I’ve made it a goal to provide the northern UK games industry with the event it deserves.
“Liverpool, like Manchester, is a beautiful city with a rich history of creativity, and has a truly wonderful games industry community that has been ignored for far too long.”
He added: “When I was 20 years old my dream was to build a nightlife festival for the games industry, and at 28 I’m proud to see us going multiregional and the FORMATGG team are proud to be giving Liverpool the games industry event it deserves.”
Helen Cross, Creative and Digital Cluster Manager at Growth Platform-Liverpool City Region Growth Company said: “With a gaming heritage going back 40 years and new studios continuing to open up today, our vibrant games industry cannot wait to help shape this international festival which, in turn, will help shine a light on the awe-inspiring games community we have here.”
FORMAT will be working very closely with Growth Platform-Liverpool City Region Growth Company and the Liverpool City Region Games Board over the course of 2024 to collaborate closely with the city’s games industry leadership to shape the festival for the local market and help shine a light on the growing Liverpool game development scene.
