The region’s major video games industry showcase, GAMES 15, takes place this weekend at Dubai International Marine Club.
The event — in full, the Games Alliance Middle East Show — was founded in 2008 by Microsoft Xbox Gulf, PlayStation Middle East and Africa and two of the region’s major game distributors, Pluto Games and Red Entertainment, as an industry business meet.
Over the years it has morphed into the region’s biggest video games consumer event, with around 15,000 visitors targeted for the three days of this year’s event.
“We’re doing something new for this games exhibition, crafting a different type of content for visitors,” said Tristan Irons, CFO of event organisers The Alliance. “It’s definitely a consumer event, to show the next available titles, but it’s also used as an industry educational tool — we want to get retailers excited about it as well, let them judge the excitement around titles.”
This being the first time The Alliance has run the event, Irons said they were focusing on consumers. “In coming years we will be introducing an event called Access for MDs, to put them in touch with publishers and distributors, but [this year] we want to get the impact right for the consumer side.”
One of the new events will be an electronic sports tournament organised by Europe’s Electronic Sports League, with teams of professional video gamers competing for a $250,000 (Dh917,500) prize pool.
“It’s an international invitational, so we’ve set up a big games arena for that,” said Irons.
Hands-on demonstrations
While the main stage will feature a DJ and bands alongside celebrity appearances, the dominant thrust of the event will be hands-on demonstrations of the latest and upcoming video game titles.
“It’s a try-before-you-buy event for content that’s not yet available on the market,” said Irons.
Upcoming releases to be featured at the event include first-person shooter Call of Duty Black Ops III, sports titles Pro Evolution Soccer 16, FIFA16 and WWE 2K16 and side-scrolling fighting game Street Fighter V.
Xbox exclusive previews include action title The Rise of Tomb Raider, fantasy strategy game Fable Legends and driving simulation Forza 6.
Geekay Games will be showcasing some of the gaming hardware available, from Turtle Beach headphones to gaming chairs and accessories.
For the first time the Dubai-based Tabletop Cafe board game community will be running a selection of games as well. Organiser Matt Wilson said: “We’ll be running a number of crossover titles that will appeal to video gamers — Zombicide, the XCOM board game ... Cool, quick to play boardgames to get people involved.”
