After recently visiting MCM Comic-Con/EGX and walking out after three hours, I felt properly deflated. The gaming convention scene in the UK has been piss poor since COVID-19 stuck the middle finger up at the planet. After spending my time at the most recent EGX playing about three games and then spending the rest of the time weaving in and out of overpriced stalls full of plastic toys, furry tails and anime art, I was done. EGX used to be the largest gaming convention in the country, closely followed by Insomnia.
Gaming Events Are Grinding To A Halt Everywhere In The UK
The organising company behind Insomnia ran into serious financial trouble. In 2024, that event folded and went into liquidation. There has recently been a glimmer of hope for a revival of the Insomnia event; however, this has been met with criticism. A different location clouds the event with serious doubts. Can they bring the same level of quality, and will it even work well at Staffordshire County Showground, which is much harder to access and get to than the NEC in Birmingham?
WASD is another casualty, which, unfortunately, suffered a similar fate after its last show in April 2024. The organisers also entered liquidation, which made the event financially unsustainable. The last show was the only one I managed to attend, and I have to say it was well organised and was a great little space for indies to showcase their talents; a sad shame this had to end.
To The Moon Expo – What Has Gone On?
Disclaimer before I start – I didn’t attend To The Moon Expo, and if I had the time to go, I probably would have given it a shot. I did offer to write an article for the organisers prior to the show starting, just to give them a bit of a lift. After the shit show of EGX, I was willing to help a fresh convention hit the ground running. Unfortunately, I was sick for a week and didn’t manage to put an article together, and I am glad I didn’t waste my time after what I have seen.
I’ve seen several people who attended the show stating that they feel ripped off, lied to and disappointed. There was seemingly a promise of 15,000 tickets being sold, 150 games in the lineup to play and lots of other stuff going on. It was ambitious, and from the flurry of posts that came through on Twitter from them, it looked like it could have been the next decent gaming convention in the UK.
Was The NEC Too Big?
From the images I’ve seen, this could have been held at a much smaller venue. The NEC in Birmingham is renowned for its giant halls. I’ve been told that there was a good collection of indies there to play and digest along with their development teams. As for everything else, though, it was lacking.
The creator zone was apparently a small space with a few tables tucked away in a corner. There has been some criticism stating that the range of creators wasn’t diverse enough, with predominantly male attendees. Other than this, there were a couple of arcade machines amongst the mix. As for the 150 games promised, there were probably around 20 according to sources, and they were mainly the indie titles. Some have said there were no more than approximately 500 people in attendance, which is way off from the 15,000 quoted.
Will It Return?
Unfortunately, this looks like it’ll be a one-and-done convention after this reception. It has missed the mark hugely and would have been better suited to a much smaller venue. If this were the case and it wasn’t hyped up so much, I think it would have been well received and could have been built on year on year. From other posts I’ve seen, there are some suggestions that it’s been a cash grab, and there are some dodgy dealings occurring. But that is something I am not going to speculate on myself. There was a slight glimmer of good stuff, most notably the voice actors from Kingdom Come Deliverance 1/2 doing talks and meet and greets. This may have been enough for big fans of the games, but alas, not quite enough to hold the show up in terms of quality
Hear From The People Who Did Attend
Check out this video down below from @TheePhenomenal1, who gives direct feedback on what he witnessed at the event
The event has been compared to the famous Willy Wonka convention that went viral
I urge you to read this article from @Katie_TriPixels, highlighting several concerns and why diligence is needed
Why Due Diligence Matters for Indie Game Studios – Mrs Game Dev
Final Thoughts
With recent events I’ve personally attended and seeing the reception of people who attended To The Moon Expo, it’s a sad state of affairs. It is difficult to pinpoint what the problem truly is with gaming conventions. Finances and logistics seem to be the real issue here. Is it a case of the organisers of conventions quoting huge costs due to their running costs of an event? Is it simply just because the bigger publishers and developers don’t want to eat into budgets and would rather showcase their work digitally?
Either way, I hate to see events fail. I don’t like seeing people having a rubbish time when they have spent their hard-earned cash. I am in a privileged position where attending events has cost me next to nothing. But I have still felt robbed of my time when something hasn’t been good enough. So I can’t imagine how it must feel when casual gamers spend cash on travel, hotels, tickets and more. Then, walking into a bare convention hall with next to nothing to do. The organisers of To The Moon Expo should be issuing apologies, but I feel they will be fading into the distance sadly.