Record attendance at EG Expo

By Tom Bramwell Published 4 October, 2010

See you next year!

We're really pleased to announce that this year's sell-out Eurogamer Expo was attended by more than 20,000 visitors over three days.

As you know if you came along to Earls Court over the weekend, we had UK first-plays for LittleBigPlanet 2, Gears of War 3, Fable III, Bulletstorm, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and many others.

We were also delighted to welcome to likes of Peter Molyneux, Tim Willits and Tameem Antoniades to front our developer sessions. Molyneux began things on Friday with a lovely presentation about the evolution of the Fable series following on-stage sword fighting and an introduction from a town crier.

Elsewhere at the show we had a Challenge Zone (Eurogamer's own James Hills somehow managed second place in the world Trials HD finals!), the GamesIndustry.biz Careers Fair, the Indie Games Arcade and BAFTA surgeries among many other attractions.

Eurogamer TV was buzzing around all weekend filming people playing Dance Central and Def Jam Rapstar, and finding out what you made of the sessions and games on the floor. We'll have an EGTV Show up soon, so watch out for yourself.

The Expo kicked off on Friday, 1st October with more than 3000 people streaming through the doors in the first 45 minutes. The guys at the front of the queue had been there since 2am. This is the sort of dedication we expect.

Obviously next year we're thinking bigger, and if you came along we'd love your feedback on what we can improve.

For now, why not content yourself with Eurogamer hero Chris Ward's mighty fine timelapse video of the show setup and the first day...

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000. Follow him on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (52) Latest comment 2 years ago

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  • Bahumet #1 2 years ago

    Came down from Scotland for the 3rd year running. Excellent setup and really enjoyed the day. Might be nice to have some multi format games on both 360 and ps3 so we can compare. Surprise of the expo was Hunted. See you next year!

  • telboy007 #2 2 years ago

    Would have been good to know what the average time for a play through was for some games, got bored of waiting for a go on Dragon Age 2. Was good though, got to play a few cool games before release. :)

  • cw- #3 2 years ago

    Had fun, just a shame the queue for Brink was 2hrs! Really wanted to try it

  • cw- #4 2 years ago

    @Bahumet there were loads of multiplatform games there, being shown on different consoles!

  • rivuzu #5 2 years ago

    @Raining_Upwards
    Those guards were legends. It's funny you mentioned the Beards thing though, because me and my mate had no problems but could tell the guy was staring at our chins.

    Pay attention kids.

    Oh, and er, excuse me Eurogamer, but what?
    This is the kind of dedication we expect.
    Doesn't that sound a little obnoxious?

  • telboy007 #6 2 years ago

    For the games where there are nice ladies dancing about in skimpy short shorts, there should be some seating available for viewing pleasure. Yes I am currently single.... yes, I'll probably stay that way.

  • rivuzu #7 2 years ago

    @telboy007

    EGExpo =/= E3 circa 2008 and backwards unfortunately. Though yes. Skantily clad females would always have been of bonus. Would have made those queues a little more bearable!

  • cw- #8 2 years ago

    The career fair felt very underwhelming and like little effort had been put into it from the organisers (not the companies there advertising jobs). Small, poor location and empty booths..

    Last time I went to an EG Expo was the first one in 2008, which felt well done and professionally presented.

  • telboy007 #9 2 years ago

    There was one on the wii dance game, that quite a few gentlemen were standing and watching... from the rear view. Dirty pervs!

  • Brev2034 #10 2 years ago

    Great day on Sunday but only gripe I have is I set the fastest time on f1 in the challange zone n didnt win anything apart from that mint day defiantly going next year

  • Melchett #11 2 years ago

    While queues are to be expected some of them did get ridiculous. Especially where, with certain multiplayer games, there seemed to be no staff around to clear people off after 10-15 minutes on a game. So more pods & better supervision of said pods please.

    Also a few more freebies wouldn't go amiss. Failing that, maybe the developers could be encouraged to bring along some of their own merchandise for us to buy? I'd gladly have emptied my wallet on a few t-shirts/ hoodies or other game related stuff with which to adorn my desk at work.

    On the whole though, I felt I got a pretty good day's entertainment for my £8

  • quelch1975 #12 2 years ago

    I was very impressed all round. Just about everything I hoped to see was there including Kinnect, Move and 3D gaming. I got to have a solid go on all of them. This allowed me to form an opinion on what to buy and what to pass on (which for me is the main reason for going). Wait times were very acceptable as the ratio between stations and attendees was spot on. Most exhibiters did a good job of managing queues especially Medal of Honor and Gears of War 3 who controlled the length of time one got to sit down with the demo. Staff were helpful but not intrusive. You could always find someone but they weren't looking over your shoulder (which is always annoying). I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of all the screens, particularly how many 3D televisions Sony had up and running.

    The only real disappointment was that there was nothing on the 3DS. Infact I was surprised that Nintendo were so under represented. They showed very few games and did not have nearly enough monitors. Their queues were too long and disorganised for me to bother with.

    I was surprised that apart from a small section HMV took up, that there was nothing to buy. Surely retailers are missing a trick here.

    It is the least of my concerns but I would have liked to have seen better food on offer as I was there from 10.00am to 7.00pm. The baked potatoes had a choice of four rather nasty looking fillings, the hot dogs were extremely bland and the packed sandwiches were rather unambitious. I suspect that this might be down to the venue rather than Eurogamer but if you guys can do something for next year I would be really happy.

  • dwbell #13 2 years ago

    I'm sure this has nothing to do with Eurogamer, but the Xbox 360 stands are pretty uncomfortable to play on after 5-10 min. I got pretty sick of seeing playstation demo's with comfortable chairs/beanbags and wired controllers.

  • nuanimal #14 2 years ago

    There were too many Mafia II pods :o(


  • bazzaffc #15 2 years ago

    Want to say first of all I had a great day on Sunday and will be going back next year!!

    Have to agree with some of the comments I was very surprised to see the lack of stands selling merchandise etc would defiantly have put my hand in my wallet for some goodies! Have been to a few very varied expo type events before and always enjoy having a look at the stands to see what they are selling, hopefully this may be changed for next year!

    Keep up the good work, see you next year!!!

  • Seoh #16 2 years ago

    I was also really suprised by the lack of merch booths, after i tried bulletstorm i was like these headphones are great i want a pair.

    I was a teensy bit annoyed that dsepite all the deus ex posters there wasn't even a video playing for the game and since i was't there on friday for the talk i missed it all. :-(

  • Haloboy #17 2 years ago

    Anyone who came away from playing Crysis 2 on the 360 and liked it should be ashamed. Ashamed they didn't play the vastly superior version on the PC lodged away in darkness at the back of the venue. Looked over by tasty Nvidia gals.

    Crysis 2 on the 360 was absolutely terrible. While RAGE on the exact same machine was astounding. Go figure.

  • Crazyreyn #18 2 years ago

    Although I have a feeling it'll be London only from now on, perhaps consider hosting it at Birmingham as well. The NEC is a good size and is very easy to get to on the train.

  • themorganator #19 2 years ago

    really enjoyed the event - especially the 3d stuff. However, GranTurismo was a big disappointment for me (virtually identical to previous versions, floaty controls, total lack of realistic damage) although Killzone 3 in 3D looked sweet. Marvel v Capcom looked totally awesome, too.

    Quite concerned about the 3d viewing headache I developed though....

  • nickal47 #20 2 years ago

    @Seoh - Totally agree with you regarding merchandise. I asked this question over twitter but got no reply as there was very little last year aswell. I guess it is because of the hmv sponsorship but they don't really sell anything out of the norm, would be nice to have some third party or bespoke traders selling gear/clothing etc.

    Also, I know it is really difficult to control but there really needs to be a better way to control time spent on games and people jumping in etc - saw loads of people jumping under the roped off bits to grab a chair as soon as it was vacated while others were queing. Also lots of people just passing controllers to mates etc instead of queing up properly.

  • telboy007 #21 2 years ago

    @Haloboy! Couldn't agree more, the Crysis 2 demo was absolute pants on the 360 and the nvidia ladies were eye candy. :) Seemed you were fighting the game engine more than the enemies, I didn't even feel I was in full control at any point. It felt like pot luck if I hit and killed anything. Bad, and it kept killing the dev 360s.
    Edited by telboy007 at 04/10/10 @ 17:44

  • Haloboy #22 2 years ago

    Yep Crytek screwed the pooch on that one. Not only was the pop up eye jarring but the constant freezing/stuttering/lack of any control whatsoever as you mentioned almost made it unplayable. And then there was that god awful hit blurring which meant you couldn't see anything even if you were lucky enough for the frame rate to not fall over and die.

    Nothing to do with PC fanboyism but Crysis 2 should have remained on machines that could handle it's obvious beastyness. Anything less is an injustice to how good a game it looks like certainly being.

  • cw- #23 2 years ago

    EG Expo is a consumer event to show off new games, not a retail event. I (personally) wouldn't expect to be able to purchase merchandise at such an event.
    That said, I wouldn't care if it was there ... as long as it doesn't take anything away from the games themselves!


    @Haloboy RAGE wasn't there? Did I miss it? It's not on this list http://expo.eurogamer.net/whats-on.php and wasn't on the list in the survey EG just sent me.

  • mrhand #24 2 years ago

    The security guards outside the event were total morons. If they spotted a woman in the queue, their default reaction was to try and direct them to the wedding show around the corner!

    And the food inside the event was terrible and overpriced. We disappeared off a rather excellent pub (location of the Eurogamer Expo Games Aid party) for some lovely food.

    Loved the giant bean bags by the HMV section (? if HMV had dropped their game prices, they would have shifted way more copies).
    Good selection of games at the show, so well done Eurogamer.

    Can you snag Bioware to speak at next year's show please?

  • Fkclub #25 2 years ago

    Had a fantastic time at my first expo. So good, I posted a mega blog update on my super Saturday at http://www.starttoplay.wordpress.com - love to know what your favourite game of the show was.

  • phatp1p3 #26 2 years ago

    To be honest this was my firts EG and having been to play.com live in 2008 I was hoping for more freebies and more interaction from staff etc. I had a great time but with a 9 year old boy to please I thought there could have been more handouts. As a gears nut I think gears 3 will be the cats t*ts when it rolls out in April, I also think brotherhood looks great and I think the 3D games were banging. Get more free stuff for next year:-)

  • Dogme #27 2 years ago

    Well, i disagree with every bit of nit picking in this thread so far! There was nothing that i had a problem with at the Expo :) That doesn't mean that it can't be better though. Having a second venue at least as far north as Birmingham would be fair to people up north. I would also like the Expo to be increased to at least 4 days in London, either continuous days or 4 days spread over two consecutive weekends. 20,000 tickets sold before the Expo started on the Friday, and the Saturday sold out a long time ago, which suggests that there is a demand out there for a lot more than the 20,000 tickets that were on sale. One year in the future, Eurogamer should aim to have the Expo in the main hall at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre or Olympia. Aim big!

  • Haloboy #28 2 years ago

    The guards stopping under 18's going into the er 18's section were fucking useless also. As soon as their backs were turned I saw plenty sneaking in through the completely unmanned curtain to their left. Oh and did anyone else partake in that tiny pizza place right outside that was doing 14 inch pizzas for £8? Those were some amazing pizzas right there. Mmmm.

  • legendarytomuk #29 2 years ago

    My first year, loved it and definitely coming next year and will bring more friends! Will remember to grow beard next year, I shaved the day before.

  • CraftyNigel #30 2 years ago

    i did get to see most of what i wanted but the lack of staff manning most of the consoles was not good,people were spending far to long on the games not allowing enough people to try them out,gran turismo was awful and the 3d wasnt great,disappointed gears and assasins were only multiplayer showings and ill agree about merchandising,why not get places like shop to and play.com to sponsor you next year im sure their prices would be far better than HMV and im sure they would have loads of variety in their stalls to offer us and their prices would be good too,hmv's little shopping area was very poor indeed.also i would have liked to have seen more of the developers with their games as its good to talk to them about their games,the guy on castlevania was very helpful,it did help that i loved the game and cant wait till its out on friday
    Edited by CraftyNigel at 04/10/10 @ 19:42

  • Haloboy #31 2 years ago

    @cw-

    RAGE was the very last thing shown on the last day in the large convention room. The expo ended with a real bang thanks to id.

    Oh and also having one of EG's staff telling us 'if you try to go down the escalator I will laugh at you' made us feel very silly indeed. And rightly so because we had practically stepped foot on it to leave. Cue us sheepishly heading towards the stairs. >_>
    Edited by Haloboy at 04/10/10 @ 19:41

  • Xephon1970 #32 2 years ago

    It was my first show and I can't wait for next year's. It was all kinds of awesome, especially surprised by how good the 3D stuff turned out to be.

  • RandomTerrain #33 2 years ago

    Great fun thanks.

    I hear quite a few consoles broke though on Saturday, reasons unknown, I don't think this helped queuing time. Especially for Brink! So if at all possible, please be prepared for the worse, and spare consoles on standby to avoid dissapointment. Although in fairness I didn't actually see that many broken consoles myself.

    So either certain people were exaggerating, or you were quite well prepared.

    Oh yes, loved the free tshirts, please always encourage the giving out of them if you can, makes everyone happy. :o)

  • costa_k #34 2 years ago

    Bigger premises.Make sure there will be enough tickets for everyone that will want to come.

  • hilts #35 2 years ago

    i thought it was great on Friday and most queues were not much of a problem
    enjoyed motorstorm and killzone 3D , didnt think much of the 3D effect in gran turismo though
    as some have already said, some of the booth staff didnt have much of a clue, some of the sony guys seemed to struggle with move calibration which was a worry!
    yep too many mafia 2 pods - not the most popular game either!
    the kinect dance stage and rapstar were both very entertaining!
    agree nintendo disappointing
    more free t-shirts please!

  • Chufty #36 2 years ago

    Excellent stuff EG, my only gripe is that we turned up too late and didn't get to try everything! The food was rubbish and overpriced but that's not their fault.

    Crysis 2 was the highlight for me. It was utterly exhilarating and bloody gorgeous. PC version of course, heard bad things about the xbox version!

    I'm a big fan of 3D gaming but KZ3 was terrible. I'm not sure if it was just the set/glasses I was using but there was all sorts of picture bleed between the two eyes' images and it was a bit ugly. My girlfriend tried Mafia 2 in 3D and said that was flickering and bugging out too, although that happens with Nvidia's 3D Vision when the batteries are low.

    Shame Crysis 2 wasn't in 3D though, after they kept babbling on about it!

  • CaptainCortez #37 2 years ago

    Hey, if anyone who took a picture of me dressed as Chuck Greene (with orange juice and servbot helmet) has their pictures up yet, it'd be great if you could post the link in here, or send them to me on Twitter: @CaptainCortez

    I was trying to get on Eurogamer's front page again (like I did last year, dressed as a zombie), but it seemed everyone but Eurogamer took a picture, and/or video'd me. :p

    Awesome show guys! Everyone seemed to have fun, and I can't wait again for next year's!

  • Jamiesan #38 2 years ago

    only downside from EG for me was that the dev sessions got announced after I had already booked my ticket. Although it's understandable that you guys prolly don't get confirmation yourselves until the last minute.

    Game-wise, rock band 3's pro mode blew me away! Shame they only had the Madcatz guitar playable, but they at least brought along a prototype of the fully stringed one to show off. One of the EA dudes let me hold it a while - it weighs and feels just like a real guitar instead of a plastic game instrument! RB3 definately had the best assistants of the games I played too - people that are actually involved in making the game! I got some trivial info out of them, for example they will try to load a singer of the correct gender if you play a setlist that changes. The keyboard stand they were using does not come with the bundle, but you get a strap to use it like a keytar in case you dont have a table or something to use.

    The Nintendo section was horribly cramped, and they really missed an oppertunity to show off 3DS, since its kinda hard to show that tech off over the internet.
    I'm wondering if the two Assassin's Creed versions were so far apart for a reason? IIRC the ps3 build was only 6 player while the 360 was 8 player. Very fun either way!

    tl;dr, good job EG! See you next year!

    edit: yes, needed moar swag. Did HMV sell ANY games at those prices? I would have shelled out for an EG tee if they came in fat bastid sizes :)
    Edited by Jamiesan at 04/10/10 @ 21:49

  • barebackbadger81 #39 2 years ago

    this was my 2nd year!
    and didn't feel it lived up to last years. after a decent drive from wolverhampton at 6am (motorway was a nightmare) i would like to see more chill out/relax areas. come 2pm i was knackered and would liked to have had a rest on something comfy and not the wet floor
    also how much was the food? £5.95 for a jacket potato with beans!!! i had no choice to leave the building
    the queues for the games was a little worse than last year (more people attending this year) especially brink. a game i watched for a good half hour but couldn't get anywhere near it to play it unless i queued for a couple of hours!
    it seems im saying it was all bad, far from it i really enjoyed but would love a local one.
    the company i work for can get the civic hall in wolverhampton if your interested lol

    EDIT: more merchandise aswell, i know people say it was a gaming expo blah blah blah but all the big shows, E3, gamescom, even PAX etc sell merchandise. i would love to of brought a brink hoodie/shirt

    AND MORE FREEBIES, i only got a need for speed t-shirt, and enslaved artbook and soundtrack and a couple of EA light up pens

  • Scimac #40 2 years ago

    Yeah had a good day but wish I'd queued up to play more games but just couldn't decide. I was like a kid in a sweet shop. Talking of queues, the main one outside needs better management. I got there on Saturday about 8 where there were about 15 people waiting, yet in the 3 hours till another 30 people seemed to have joined infront including a group of 5 - 10 wearing Train2Game t-shirts. May I suggest you train to queue first! And the cock up with where the press are meant to queue was a farce too. Sorry rant over.

    Looking forward to next year but would love to see some merchandise and freebies aswell as more games.
    Edited by Scimac at 04/10/10 @ 22:44

  • Alex_976 #41 2 years ago

    Looks like they need to take this to the NEC in Birmingham. Make it as bike as the bike and car shows!!

  • Vnvim #42 2 years ago

    This was my 2nd expo and overall I thought it was awesome! :) some great games there. I especially enjoyed the kinect, move and 3D games.
    Only a couple of suggestions...I agree with others that more merchandise would have been great, free or otherwise. I didn't get my hands on any freebies and hmv is way too pricey :(
    Also, there shouldve been more pc games on show! There were hardly any this year - just a few stations in the deepest darkest corner of the over 18s area! Compared to last year where there were quite and a few in the main area and the tournament was on the pc too...
    And the food in the venue wad aweful and a rip off. Though I suspect that was more to do with earls court than eurogamer.

    All in all a pretty good show this year :) will hopefully be going again next year too!

  • Retro_ #43 2 years ago

    Yeah, really enjoyed the Show on Saturday.

    Highlight for me was Dead Space 2 on PS3, how amazing was that looking and it was running like butter.

    Was nice to see Kinnect running, the demo's looked graphically very good, The lag was not good though, Still, I can see that kinnect will appeal to the Casual market but I think we can all forget the idea of seeing a kinnect FPS etc lol!

    Vanquish, Fable III, GT5, Motorstorm, Brink, Bulletstorm all looked very nice too.

    As I was leaving, I spotted Infamous 2 running a Demo in a beanbagged casual area and it too was looking really good, not as good as the nVidia girls though, obviously !

    Food was a rip off, wasn't aware of a pizza van outside but the pasties were tasty.

  • BurningEclipse #44 2 years ago

    I spent a ridiculous amount of time at the Rock Band 3 stand. The people working there recognized me by the end of my two days. Could not get enough of it. Kudos to EA, they seemed to have the biggest presence in terms of reps on the floor.

    Only real gripe about the Expo was the challenge area. It was very poorly implemented, no other way to describe it.

    Everything else was top notch and I'm sure anyone who attended the Media Molecule session will agree that it was great :) "Tesco's Zombie Panda Apple Tank" game ftw.

  • wanderingkid #45 2 years ago

    Ok here's my feedback:

    Get a staff member on each gaming pod section so you can turf those people off that were staying seated after playing not one but even two rounds of a demo ! That's ridiculous, it would have shifted the queues & myself and others would have got a go of everything they wanted to play.
    On the Killzone section for example I saw no staff at all, I watched some people sitting on a game for 30-45 mins at a time for a 15 minute demo round ! Also as others have said, more freebies/merchandise next time. I spoke to an EG rep and he was saying it's out of their control in a way because the companies just didn't provide any. Something about they weren't expecting a good attendance to warrant it. This expo could easily be the UK version of e3/TGS. I have a feeling it will be in the coming years.

    Other than that I did have fun on the games I actually got to play. Next time; bigger venue, more games, more staff controlling play-time rotation and more freebies ! Thank you !

  • rhubarb69 #46 2 years ago

    I had an excellent time.
    The plus points outweigh the negatives, but the only negative was a large one.

    Monitoring of most of the pods was poor.
    They shouldn't need to be monitored, because people should have the sense and awareness to realise others are waiting, but I gave up after waiting about 40 minutes to have a go on Killzone 3 because nobody was moving....which was a shame because that was the main attraction for me.

  • Lukus #47 2 years ago

    Free (compulsory) deodorants on entry.

  • ZizouFC #48 2 years ago

    We don't really have anything like this in South Africa/Africa in general (Shocker!), so I am very jealous of all of you who got to attend.

    One day.... one day...

  • themorganator #49 2 years ago

    agree with comments about pod monitoring. This needs to improve next year as a small minority were taking the piss.

  • carrotcake #50 2 years ago

    Wow seriously, you got Zelda code from Nintendo? I should have probably went to this thing. Only one I've been to was the 2008 one. I think I remember Ellie wearing a red top one day, obviously she's the most important part of any expo. Also there was a tank outside. Damn I better go next year.

  • stoopidgreg #51 2 years ago

    Pros: nice venue, great games, great atmosphere, rage demo was jaw droppingly gorgeous
    Cons: far too much queing, most games should have headphones coz the place was just a cacophony of noise, £6.50 for the most rotten mushy baked potato i've ever eaten (seriously wtf!), more organised ques would be good (as would seating for people queing), and of course - more babes!!

    Overall I had a really good time, Sony's The Fight was surprisingly fun (I won with 3/4 health remaining while the flailing lunatics before me got their ass handed to them). They probably shouldn't have shown Crysis on the 360 - I watched someone try to play while the framerate kept a steady 5 fps... (the game was glorious on PC though). Was not impressed with the 3D of Killzone 3 - it was just blurry, low frame rate, darker, you needed to find the square inch sweet spot and I came away from the event with the most killer headache...

  • barebackbadger81 #52 2 years ago

    on a side note, what were the headphones used at the brink stand?