Game on as players and creators meet up again

GamerFest CEO Stuart Dempsey: Fans of e-sports and gaming will witness a lineup of competitive action on the main stage. Picture: Andrew Downes

GamerFest, Ireland’s biggest gaming convention and e-sports festival, is returning to the RDS in Dublin on October 22 and 23.

The weekend celebration of gaming entertainment will include the latest e-sports challenges, VR gaming, live stage content, and a host of special guests including top Twitch and YouTube creators.

“The past few years have been a tough time for everybody involved with live events, and we at GamerFest certainly have not been immune,” GamerFest CEO Stuart Dempsey, admits.

“But given the amount of anticipation and excitement there has been in advance of the RDS later this month, we do expect to make up for lost time.”

Since its establishment in 2017, GamerFest has developed a diverse, community-led gaming convention for a constantly growing demographic that includes casual gaming, competitive
e-sports tournaments, game development/design, and content creation.

The event has also become a hub for Irish content creator talent, many of whom will be in attendance — Jamie Jay Car, Antitinkerbell, The Gara Show, MissAudreyy, and event hosts All Cast Irish Gamers.

“While we do have a 5,000 sell-out, we could probably have had far more than that given that gamers have had no opportunity to physically gather together since the pandemic first arrived.”

Growth of e-sports tournaments

With 5% of attendees expected from overseas, the CEO sees this as an exponentially growing figure given the success of GamerFest’s e-sports tournaments internationally.

“As we scale the event over the coming years, we want to firmly establish GamerFest as an international event and attracting gamers from across the EU and beyond.”

Fans of e-sports will witness a line-up of competitive action on the GamerFest main stage, including a partnership with Ubisoft and the launch of the GamerFest Rainbow Six Siege Ireland Open. This tournament offers an opportunity for Irish teams to qualify for the UK-Ireland Nationals, and ultimately earn a professional spot in the Rainbow Six Northern Premier League.

GamerFest takes place at The RDS, Dublin, on October 22 and 23.

The organisers have also confirmed a partnership with Legion Collegiate Esports, Ireland’s dedicated e-sports series for third-level students, which will see some of the best student talent in the country go head-to-head across a range of titles including Rocket League, Apex Legends and FIFA.

“Ever since our first event five years ago, we’ve kept an absolute focus on one thing — the gaming community.

“Community guides us in everything we do, ensuring we have the best games, content, special guests and entertainment possible at all our events. It will be wonderful to see people physically come together and celebrate all things gaming, bringing to life all the incredible friendships and relationships that have developed online over the last number of years.”

Visitors to the RDS event will also have the opportunity to get hands-on with Hado, the latest in augmented
reality gaming, where players do battle with virtual energy balls and shields on a real-life court. GamerFest will also launch the first ever Irish Hado championship, with the winning team representing Ireland at the upcoming Hado European Championships in France.

“In addition to running our GamerFest live events, we’re also involved in the An Post Money Mate Legion E-sports Series, an online series of gaming tournaments featuring Fifa, Rainbow 6 Siege and Fortnite with plans for more tournaments on the way,” he adds. “Looking to the future, we are targeting 20,000 visitors to GamerFest within the next 24 months — a figure I believe is very achievable given the appetite for gaming in Ireland and around the world.”

Over the past decade the industry has continued to demonstrate its enormous entertainment muscle, with global gaming revenue in 2021 in excess of €170bn. Such is the global spread of gaming that it is now bigger than Hollywood and the music industry combined.

The top-selling games such as Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, Fall Out, and the Call of Duty franchise are now easily outpacing film franchises such as James Bond, Mission Impossible and Harry Potter. As an example, Grand Theft Auto V took in over €6bn — compared to Avatar, the highest-grossing film of all time at €2.8bn.

It is a well-established fact by now that gaming is bigger than movies and music combined.

“Indeed, that was further highlighted at the beginning of 2022 when Microsoft acquired the game publisher Activision Blizzard for $70bn. When you consider that Microsoft’s biggest acquisition up to that point was $26bn for LinkedIn in 2016, it is a measure of how importantly global tech companies view the huge gaming audience out there.”

Activision Blizzard has studios around the world with over 10,000 employees and includes iconic franchises like Warcraft, Diablo, Call of Duty, and Candy Crush.

“Gaming is the most dynamic and exciting category in entertainment and will play a key role in the development of metaverse platforms,” said Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO, Microsoft.

Investing

“We’re investing deeply in world-class content, community and the cloud to usher in a new era of gaming.”

Reaching this point of obvious success has not come without its challenges — most notably in the form of Covid-19, just as GamerFest was finding its fledgling feet.

“The plan was always to build towards a national gaming event, which came to fruition in 2019 when we got 5000 people together for the event.

“It was all there, poised to really drive on and grow. But then came the pandemic and everything stopped.”

Like any entrepreneur worth his salt, Stuart quickly pivoted to launch the e-commerce brand, Gamerstore.ie, selling equipment to the growing gamer demographic across the country.

“It was a great business for us when people were in stuck at home during lockdown and with time on their hands for gaming. People were starved of
social contact, and were keeping in touch with their community through gaming. It got us through a bad patch and on to where we are today.”

GamerFest takes place at The RDS, Dublin, on October 22 and 23