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MCV reports on what looks like an email sent out to trade attendees at the forthcoming play.com live show. Steve Rowe, managing director of Play.com says “The response from the games industry to the idea has been amazing. When we initially proposed a consumer show we went to all publishers and 90 per cent said “we’ll support you, we’re in” - and that’s been the case all the way through. It may be a testing time of the year for the number of games released, but without doubt, publishers have come through with some excellent stands and great content. We’re also extremely pleased with the response from the press with coverage in The Sun, and film crews from T4 and ITN capturing all the action at the show”.

On how the show compares to E3 and TGS Steve says “ I don’t know if a UK games show will ever be able to take on trade shows such as the old E3 and the Tokyo Games Show for sheer size as we do not have the headquarters of Sony or Microsoft based in this country. But I do know that we need to engage the UK consumer, which is why I am so impressed by the commitment these huge companies have given to this show.”. Click continue reading for more!

(photo: Leipzig GC 2007)

Personally I don’t think not having a big headquarters in this country is the reason for the UK not having a decent event up until now. The German software association is making aggressive moves to try and make their show become gamings show piece event of the year following the downsizing of E3, and neither of the big 3 have their HQ in Germany.  2009 will be the year of the big push with the move from Leipzig to Cologne for the show and the renaming to Cologne Games Comm. With E3 being North America’s show, TGS being Asia Pacific’s and Cologne Games comm (CGC??) being Europe’s, there probably isn’t room for a show of that kind of epic proportion, but it could still progress into a big country specific event. Time will tell.