The Guildford Games Festival Is Back For A Third Year

Published on: 29 Nov, 2021
Updated on: 1 Dec, 2021

The Guildford Games Festival is back for a third year. The international festival will be a virtual event, streamed to the public on the gaming platform, Twitch, on December 3.

A VIP Awards Ceremony to celebrate industry talent will be held the night before at Guildford’s Boileroom.

The event organisers said: “Now in its third year, the Guildford Games Festival is a celebration of our world-renowned town and its community of game developers.

“It serves to bring the games community together whilst showcasing the incredible talent of local studios and developers – who make some of the best games in the world – via engaging interviews and a VIP, star-studded, awards ceremony.”

Main sponsors for the Games Festival include Guildford Borough Council, Media Molecule alongside Microsoft, Hello Games, EA Criterion, Supermassive, Nordisk Games Perpetual, BDO and the University of Surrey.

Statistics from the 2020 Guildford Games Festival.

A spokesperson from GBC said: “Thanks to over 70 companies making Guildford their home, our borough has earned the prestigious title of ‘The Hollywood of Games’.

“Last year’s festival featured more than 50 local studios, received 2.7 million views online worldwide and generated £2.8million in Steam store sale for local studios.”

The festival organisers said it will be a “day of informative, insider insight from Selen Ceri & Emily Cook of Supermassive Games, Jonny Hopper of Glowmade, and the team at EA Criterion to name a few. The lineup will also feature more than one appearance from headline sponsors Media Molecule – the team behind Little Big Planet and Dreams – plus many other Guildford studios and businesses.”

Cllr Joss Bigmore

Leader of the council, Joss Bigmore (R4GV, Christchurch) said: “The video game companies based here employ over 1,800 people, which means that we make up over 10% of the UK game industry workforce. This an incredible achievement for our town, especially as the video games industry is now worth over £150 billion globally, with the UK videogames market reaching a record £7 billion last year.

And what is new today, is history tomorrow. Guildford Museum has created a permanent video game collection to reflect the thriving video game heritage in Guildford

Cllr John Redpath

Lead councillor for Economy, John Redpath (R4GV, Holy Trinity) said: “We have made a great start by collecting games from the Fable series (Lionhead Studios) and carrying out an interview with Peter Molyneux. But this is just the beginning.

“We also have scheduled a video game exhibition at the museum for next summer, to coincide with the 2022 annual Guildford Games Festival.

“If you would like to get involved and donate a game or two made by Guildford Studios on our list to collect, please do get in touch. We’re sure that the Guildford Games Festival, as well as our thriving gaming sector, will continue to inspire the next generation of young developers to pursue a career in game development.”