Peter Molyenux needs little introduction to anyone who knows anything about Games. He has been involved in games from the beginning and shared some insights on his most successful titles. Peter has always been at the forefront of experimentation: Syndicate, Black and White and the original Fable have all garnered awards for their originality but are not what I would call ‘complete’ games. I’ve played a little with all of them, got the gist of what they were trying to do and left them uncompleted. He deserves all he has been awarded (most recently the  Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in March 2007 and an OBE) and if you were out to pigeon hole him, you would call him one of the most experimental mainstream game producers in the UK.

However, this has not meant that he is been unable to gain commercial as well as critical success. In fact, most of this talk was focused on one of his highly successful titles; ‘Theme Park’. Theme Park was produced in 1995 and sold 15 million copies across all formats. In hindsight, it was a no-brainer, but at the time Molyneux explained how hard it was to sell such an innovative idea, especially if you were in the position of creating an already successful game.

Theme Park followed ‘Syndicate’; an isometric perspective game where you controlled a mob whom you could send on mob like missions (assassinations and such like). Obviously, the development team in Bullfrog enjoyed creating it, the publishers were happy with a product that made them money and the players loved it. Helped in no small part, according to Molyneux, by the inclusion of the first ever minigun in a game and the satisfying sound effect they created to go with it.

What the public, publisher and the development team wanted was another game in the same vein with a minigun. There were cross platform conversions and sequels of course, but Molyneux wanted instead to create a Theme Park management game. In his own words “Everyone hated it”.

If you have never played Theme Park before, well it is about creating a profitable and satisfying Theme park from the point of view of the customers. There is no killing, no mobs, but there is a rollercoaster and ice cream. People from the publisher came to visit him and tried to get him to can the game. When Molyneux went to the US, they tried to get him to close down production. Even the development team itself went on strike against the game, one of their demands was to have a sniper option, where the player could sit on the top of high rides and pick off the customers in the theme park.

We know that the game was a runaway success and inspired many sequels. I would hazard a guess that there is a strong link between the absence of dark motives and the game’s success and perhaps the success of the majority of casual games today.

This quest for a ‘universal appeal’ with its attendant financial success, is a clear goal for Fable 3; they are aiming for more than five million copies. Molyneux spoke about how the game was evolving from an RPG to a more action based game an how he had employed many women at a senior level in the development of the game in order to make it appeal more to female gamers.

There were some other interesting features in Fable 3 he was going to try out; like ‘cloud’ based in-game shops. Each shop in the game world would be connected to remote servers cogniscent of the players location, so Lionhead could control what items were released in what geography and create regional versions of the game. He is also taking Fable down the episodic gameplay route which makes clear sense from a profitable point of view.

Peter has also been heavily involved in Kinect with the ‘Milo’ project (which is certainly not just a demo, Molyneux was keen to point out) and will shortly do a TED talk on it. Kinect, he believes will create a sense of wonder that is otherwise missing from games and that people want. I spoke to him about it afterwards and about the problems of creating emotional involvement in a game (which normally takes a long time) and the fatigue caused by standing up; hence any controller that requires the player to stand up to control it will be unable to build emotional depth (but is perfect for casual games). To my surprise he agreed with my ‘perceptive comment’ and said that is why, in the TED talk he will give, he will be sitting down. You heard it here first folks!

Me giving the journalist from edge some tips

Ian Livingstone shared some time with me at the end. I must confess, I am a huge fan of Livingstone, having read all his Fighting Fantasy books he co-authored with Steve Jackson. Check out the Wikipedia page for his history. In short, he’s also been there from the beginning and is now life President of EIDOS.

As a published author, I spoke to him about the recent growth in casual games. Most casual games feature little or no plot (beyond that which is in the player’s head) and are about the satisfaction gained from the grind of accumulating virtual goods of statistics. I contrasted this with the ‘communion with the author’ that one experiences in a book or a narrative driven game. Reading one of his game books, I chose from one of his storylines, go to an end he had foreseen and had embellished the details in my own mind. If casual games were to become the bread and butter of the game industry, where was the role of the author/director? He stated that the game creator was now the creator of the game space where the narrative would have room to develop. Does this change the role of director into a ‘producer’?

He said that he hoped the author would not die out or else he would be out of work. I do feel that the momentum of the game industry is moving away as it is far more profitable to produce these kinds of games compared to the triple A titles we have all got used to.

He also spoke of consumers now viewing games as an experience that they were buying rather than a product. Ergo, when one goes skydiving one does not believe one owns the plane at the end of the experience. For new players that might be the case, but for those of us who rest our games cases on our bookshelves next to books, I do not think the argument is yet made.

Ian Livingstone runs, what could be called a little gentlemen’s club with Steve Jackson and Peter Molyneux. Where they meet regularly and play board games with each other. Ian then produces a little newsletter which is circulated to the players. To a modern gamer, this sounds delightfully archaic and ‘olde worlde’; would you write a newsletter about a Left 4 Dead or Bomberman Ultra session? In another way, it speaks of a gaming world that we have kind of left behind. In Dungeons and Dragons, the Games Master would use his imagination to bring the game alive and there would be a strong human element to the whole game, winning the game would be about surpassing the imagination of the GM. Now, with computer gamemasters there is little of that concept of besting your friend’s imagination. Perhaps we are missing out on something magical through not doing this anymore, or perhaps it is an allusion too far?

I gave Ian Livingstone a strong handshake as he told me that another Fighting Fantasy Game in the works (not yet officially announced), and I can tell you, for me, it was the best news of the conference and I looked forward to buying his book, reading it and putting it on my bookshelf with all my other titles.

The Last Airbender
The Last Airbender is a tie-in game for this summer’s M Night Shyamalan blockbuster film of the same name, with the fiction being based upon the animated cartoon known as Avatar (Avatar was dropped from the title because, well, James Cameron beat them to it last year with his big blue people film, and they don’t want any mix ups). This is an adventure game for both the Wii and DS and follows on from events that take place in the film, and you get to play from one of the three main characters as you wander the world learning and mastering your air and fire bending skills.

What a bender!

I didn’t get any hands-on time with the game myself, as the gameplay was guided by one of the PR team. However, I watched the basic combat system where my initial thoughts were that it reminded me a little of The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Prince Of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. The way you can manipulate the environment with your abilities was what drew those comparisons, however sadly, it was not the graphics. I’ll be honest, The Last Airbender looks rough. We all know that the limited graphical powers of the Wii is never going to make a game look stunning, but still this game does not look good at all. Blocky characters, dodgy textures and some obvious glitches did nothing to impress me. You have to ponder if it is sloppiness, or that it’s the old story of the film company pressurising the developers into getting the game done in time for the films release date. That brings me onto the release date for the game, the 6th of August. A week before the film comes out in cinemas in the U.K, which makes you wonder why the game which is set after the films events is out before the film itself? Spoilers!

After my time with The Last Airbender, I bumped into friend of the site and wedotech.net editor, James Joell-Ireland. Turns out James and I are from the same city (Portsmouth). They say the world is now a small place these days, which obviously makes the gaming world even smaller. Anyway, James and I got on great and we paired up to take on the rest of the games together.

Megamind
The next game I got to experience was actually yet another film tie-in game, Megamind. The game on show was the Xbox 360 version, and that’s worth noting as the game is different depending on which platform you play it on. The 360 and PS3 version will essentially be the same, the Wii will be different and is a four player co-op game that we are told is in the style to that of Marvel’s Ultimate Alliance titles. Then even on the PSP and DS there will be a different format to the game. So basically there are three different versions to this one title.

In the 360 version I sampled you are playing the lead character of the film, he being Megamind. A big brained, blue coloured super villain turned good. That reason for being good is he destroyed his old nemesis, got bored so created a new one to battle, but that super hero actually preferred to be bad, so everything flipped and now Megamind is your super hero. Confused? Well, the film will sort that out hopefully. As for the game itself though, it’s a platform adventure game with a few puzzle elements thrown in to… or is it?

Megamind and companion Brainbot. 360 and PS3 offers co-op

For the most part, yes, this is a platformer, you move through the levels as Megamind who is out to take down The Doom Syndicate. These goons have stolen Megaminds super inventions, and he wants them back. So you battle through each area collecting orbs that are called blinkys (these are used for upgrades to weapons and such at the end of each level, they also help guide you if you get a bit confused to where you are supposed to be headed), battle the baddies at either close or ranged combat (depending on what weapon you are equipped with and how close you are standing to them), and solving a few basic puzzles so you can progress to the boss battle at the end of the level.

The wii version will be different and offers four player action

However, completing the level also unlocks mini-games. These, we were told, are varied party type games. The one I got to see was a kart style racing game and did look a lot of fun. For me the platform element to the game wasn’t that appealing as the level I played seemed to drag on a tad. Then again, I’m not exactly in the age demographic this game is aimed at. It wasn’t bad in any technical way, it looks great as the character models are straight from Dreamworks themselves, and I can definitely see this being entertaining to the younger generation, but for me it was the mini-games that looked the coolest thing. The game is out cross-platform on November 26^th. Oddly enough, that again is a week before the actual film is released. We were assured playing the game first wont ruin the the film experience.

Another interesting thing I learnt during my time playing Megamind is that THQ have just signed an exclusive deal with Dreamworks which lets them have access to all the company’s animated franchises and characters, such as Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda etc. So I proposed we could very well see future games that feature crossovers from these franchises, such as a mario kart-esque game featuring all the dreamworks characters, or a Street Fighter based beat-um up with the Shrek characters versus the Kung Fu Panda Characters. Surprisingly, there wasn’t a firm yes or no answer, but with the this licensing deal such games could be possible if they choose to do so.

WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2011
Moving on, I got to play this year’s new release of a franchise that is very near and dear to my heart. I’ve been a mad keen wrestling nerd since my early teens, so when I was asked if I wanted to go to a THQ event featuring new upcoming games, there was only one on the list I was hoping to see; WWE Smackdown Vs Raw 2011. The game is THQ’s flagship franchise for their fighting games genre, selling over 50 million copies of the previous games over the last decade. It has to be bigger, brighter, and better every year, and it seems the 2011 edition will deliver just that.

Details about what will be in the final game are still being kept under lock and key, I was told that WWE want to wait until their pay-per-view event Summerslam (August 15th) before they reveal anything about game modes, new systems and unveil the 70+ roster of wrestlers that will accompany the game. They have promised a brand new, deeper and more detailed creation system. Also, last year’s game saw the introduction of community creation tools, such as player created moves, storylines, and wrestlers. All which could be uploaded and shared with those who had access to Xbox live and the Playstation Network. It was a great addition to the experience, and in 2011 THQ and Yukes have simplified the search and sharing system to make it easier to be part of the community.

"I'm tired of you laying down, sit on a chair!"

What I got to play was the E3 build of the game and it featured the TLC match. That’s a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match to you layman types. There was the choice of four wrestlers, Undertaker, The Miz, Randy Orton, and Chris Jericho. The rules of the match are simple, batter your opponent with any of the three weapon types, then when they are down climb the ladder and grab the suit case that’s hanging fifteen foot above the ring. Looking at the game at a glance you can’t really see any difference between the new game and last years version, but look closer at the little details and you will find the improvements.

The character models for the wrestlers are different to 2009, this year they have something called muscle flex which gives the textures of their model a more realistic look as they move about. Also gone are the six pack textures that were bulk standard in years gone past. From now if they’re a bit flabby, you’ll notice. So steroid addiction will be required from now on if they want to keep that chiselled look. Also new in 2011 is object physics; meaning ladders, chairs and tables will all react more realistically when used. Chairs will crumble and fold whilst laying waste to some poor guys torso or skull, and a more authentic table break will take place when shoving a 270 Ibs man through it. They’re slight details, but to a Smackdown Versus Raw die hard they are sooooooo sweet!

"Just quickly take a look. Did I step in dog pooh?"

The controls and mechanics are very much like last year’s game, and its simulation style isn’t always everyone’s cup of tea so, so I always wonder how a version will be more appealing to non wrestling fans. Fear not, keep reading on and you will learn more about a new WWE game that could be change that. As for SdvR11 as I call it, it’s more of the same but better. U.K release for WWE Smackdown Vs Raw 2011is October 26^th 2010, and will be multi-platform.

Just time to stop and grab one of the available free drinks and cakes, have a quick chat about what we’ve learnt, played and experienced before we move on to yet another new up and coming title.

"Cake anyone?"

Michael Acton Smith, CEO of Mind Candy, was on hand to talk about the experience he gained from creating Moshi Monsters to getting it to twenty million users.

Michael is a serial entrepreneur as testified by being one of the co-founders of Firebox.com, a company he started after travelling to toy trade shows around the world, and the massively ambitious Alternate Reality Game, ‘Perplex City’, now in perpetual hibernation.

Perplex City was released in 2005, and was a game that took place partially online, in reality and using puzzle cards which you could buy in game shops. The game was a critical success (and spawned the award winning ‘Six to Start’ [www.sixtostart.com]) but not a commercial success. They burned through their VC funding pretty quickly, and on the brink of failure, Michael created ‘Moshi Monsters’, which has been a run-away success with currently, as mentioned above, twenty million accounts and counting. 65% of players are female, with the majority of players in the US, UK and Australia.

In his own words, Moshi Monsters is a Facebook for children, one with safety controls and a ‘safe’ environment for children to play in.  The game is clearly a success but the not perhaps of interest to most TIMJ readers. However, Michael is certainly someone to watch, and looking forward, he would like Moshi Monsters to be the largest kids website in the world and he would further like to develop the Moshi brand and perhaps into a Moshi film.

Moving on, Yohei Ishii, Senior Director Business Development, CCP Games spoke to the title: ‘Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust: Reincarnation of the console games model’. CCP is the company behind the incredibly successful Space MMORPG Eve Online. The game was released in 2003 and is still going strong. With monthly subscriptions of at least $15 a month and hundreds of thousands of players it is easy to see why.

Even with thousands of players, and a compelling game universe, people like me, who come late to the game universe find it daunting to get hold of the controls and be thrust straight into a world in which you are very insignificant. We scuttle back to our consoles for a bit of fun instead. It seems that CCP has taken notice and is now producing its new game, ‘Dust 514’ for those like me who want to be part of the Eve Online universe, but don’t have the time to get under the skin of the complex world. Players in ‘Dust 514’ play in a FPS, that I am assured will stand up in its own right as a game. Where it gets interesting is that players can be hired by Eve players to take part in their assaults on planets. No longer will it be up to balanced computer dice rolls to decide whether a planet falls to one faction or the other, but down to the individual skills of the console gamers. Eve Online factions will be able to give virtual money to Dust players to get better kit and each Dust character can level up as in a RPG.

Are you ready to get DUSTy?

This is a spectacular game concept and could breathe new life into an established MMO and shake up the scope of the FPS. At this point, there are no release dates, but they are assembling a mighty cast of programmers and directors to bring it to life. Yohei spoke of the co-founder and lead designer of DICE coming on board as well as some producers of EA as well as those from Midway in Newcastle who had worked on the Unreal engine code (which will be used in the game).

Would you be up for a game of Dust 514 or do you think the best laid plans of Eve Online players would be ruined by some newbie shooting himself in the head with a rocket launcher? Comments below please!

Anyway, here begins my extended coverage…

The first day kicked off with Ian Livingstone giving his views of the industry. Setting out the lay of the land, he talked about the Games Industry being under a new Government which may not know that it was dealing with an industry which would be worth $90BN in 2015. He felt we were in exciting times, times with a lot of innovation and a great take up of computer games by people, with ten million WOW players, twenty Million on Moshi Monsters, and with over one billion people on Facebook soon. It was an optimistic keynote that echoed feelings that the games industry was not getting the recognition it deserved, despite its value and popularity.

Jesse Schell showing us the route to hell (via gaming)

Moving on, we listened to Jessie Schell the CEO of Schell Games. ‘Roadmap to the Gamepocalypse’ in his view how as games continue to enmesh themselves more and more into our everyday activities, game designers face a host of new challenges. He posited that we players had a desire for authenticity and as such, real life was reaching out to games and vice versa. He saw many systems that gave away points for every day activity that relied on a game mechanic, citing Mind Bloom, Foursquare, et al. which all made a game out of everyday activity and travel. Coupled with social networking, micro-transactions and small wireless devices this had the potential to move us into the ‘gamepocolypse’ where our lives would be a string of endless games. However, Jesse’s contention was this would not be a good thing and referencing ‘Punished by rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes’ (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993 / 1999). He felt the tendency to reward good behaviour, made good behaviour seem like a task and eventually hated by the player. Writ large, this could spell doom for humanity, or so it seemed; in an interview later I asked him what his feelings were for the gamepocolypse. He said games that encouraged good behaviour, like the Nike+ system were great, others which made bad behaviour compelling were not. His full slide deck are available here.

He also felt that games lacked the emotional connection for most players which would only come via a natural spoken interface. He compared this to movies pre and post the introduction of voice. His position was that before voice they were not accepted as a serious art form, and after voice they were.

Jessie is also working with Nils (see below) on a game based on ‘The Mummy’. With 125 million gamers worldwide he sees games in the ascendance. He is happy working with Bigpoint games as in his opinion he sees great potential with Europe ahead of the USA in technologies such as micro-transactions.

Nils shows us his Bigpoint Games

Nils Holger Henning, the CCO of Bigpoint Games, one of the biggest online gaming companies in the world, was up next. His emphasised the size of worldwide online gaming, which is currently at $12 bn and in 2013 will be worth $20 bn. The statistics on his own company were no less impressive: They have 250,000 registered users a day, and have 120 million customer accounts, which is greater than the total numbers of consumers!

What can explain these figures? He spoke about the pull of browser based games as they had such a low barrier to entry; they are mobile (can be played on any PC), were free to play and could be played at work. Micro-transactions for in game items were paying for the free to play model, which were currently worth $9 bn now. In his view, fixed price models for games were always wrong as they were either too low, so some big spenders are not paying all they could, and in some cases it will be too high so some players would not be able to afford the game.

As these games cost less to produce than the triple ‘A’ titles we are used to on the consoles, a glut of games were available. He now stated that marketing costs were seven times the production cost and while many companies would have the resource to develop a game, actually getting to the consumer’s attention was very hard for them. As such, his company wanted to do more with third parties and have created a specialist ‘Development Lounge’ where a developer can introduce their games to their enormous active game community. The development lounge would allow developers to position their games in a place where they could attract a big audience and benefit from the collective marketing push.

Nils also showed off two games, Poisonville (due for release in Summer 2010, to be launched at Gamescon) and Battlestar Galactica Online. Both games were MMOs and both provided close to console graphics (think PS2 on Poisonville, and decent mid range PC for BGO). These games would be playable on any system (including netbooks) with the same level of graphics as they would run off a graphics engine based in the browser (Unity) the actual graphics card of the machine you were using, and your platform would be irrelevant to the graphics quality of the game.

While Poisonville looks like a MMO GTA San Andreas, Battlestar Galactica looked amazing and choosing your faction would soon mean diving into massive epic space battles at work, on the move or even at home!

With the cost of triple A titles, consoles and game pushing game making and playing into an elite club, are browser based games the way forward? Leave your comments below!

The GameHorizon Conference 29th to 30th June is billed as Europe’s leading event for international game executives. A two-day conference featuring the most creative, entertaining and inspiring speakers from the games and entertainment industry. Headlined by the legendary Ian Livingstone (Gamesworkshop, Fighting Fantasy, EIDOS, amongst others), it also counts Peter Molyneux (Bullfrog, Lionhead studios ), Michael Acton Smith (CEO Mindcandy), Yohei Ishii (CCP) and Darren Jobling (Eutechnyx ) amongst its speakers.

I am expecting some serious discussions, networking and a chance to interview some industry greats.

If you are at the conference too, then you can watch my twitter channel: @influenceinfo with #ghc. So if you want to meet up and be mentioned, send me a tweet!

The new ‘Games Lounge‘ has just been unveiled, offering a chance for visitors to play some classic games and have a look at how consoles and games have evolved over the years in a relaxed atmosphere. On Saturday afternoon I found myself in our dilapidated town centre enjoying a nice Chinese Buffet with Simon, Kirsty and their sprog, my fake nephew, Jack. So after we had eaten, I managed to convince them to come along and check it out.

Welcome to the pleasure dome!

I’ve been to the museum a number of times since my childhood, but I can’t remember a single time where I’d actually been this excited to get there. The excitement actually began when I spied what was undoubtedly my favourite thing about the exhibit from the outside; a fully functional Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting cabinet. Before I played on my beloved brawler, I had a quick wander around to take a look at what was on offer, and with the advertising they’ve been promoting this exhibit with I have to admit it was overall a little bit of a let down. There is just so much about this great industry of ours that although it would be hard to encompass the many great facets about gaming and put them in one room, there is a lot more that could have been covered, and not just the games themselves.

There are plenty of classics for people to experience aside from Street Fighter II; such as Space Invaders, classic tabletop cabinets in the form of Donkey Kong and Pac-Man, but these aren’t free to play. It’s a clever move by the museum as people visiting for this area will almost certainly pay a nominal fee to sample classic games, and I was clearly no different. After my brief wander (this really isn’t a big exhibit), I headed straight for the game that defined my childhood; I went straight for Street Fighter II. After taking on Simon in a battle to the death, and winning, I carried on and completed the game first-time without needing any continues. That was despite little Jack’s best efforts to put me off, as you can probably see in the placeholder image at the top of the page.

Classics on offer.

Not all of the gaming on offer was to be paid for, with Sonic 2, Super Mario Kart, Pong and Goldeneye 64 all available for everyone to sample for free, that was about it. Despite some glass cases showing off some of the consoles of yesteryear, along with some memorabilia, you were left with a few choice games to sample, and not a great deal of information to go along with it. I couldn’t help feeling that it was all a bit of a missed opportunity. Where was the insight on game development? A look at where we are headed? Why gaming is so popular? It wasn’t bad, it was just… lacking.

Maybe I was expecting too much; I mean the fact that a respected media museum even having a section dedicated to gaming is a step forward, a sign that opinions are changing as to whether gaming is legitimate media, despite how misguided some of the attractions or direction might prove to be. That said, there is definitely room for this area of the museum to be improved and expanded in the future, and I hope that it’s something that’s on the agenda at some point.

Even though I found it to be lacking, if you’re a gamer and find yourself in the Bradford area, I would certainly recommend that you go check it out, even if  just for the nostalgic value. Just don’t expect to spending an age engrossing yourself in rich gaming history.

If you want to see more imagery from the exhibit, why not head over to our Facebook Fan Page, or our Flickr account?

For the twenty contestants from around Europe competing for a grand prize of a Sonia Bravia TV as well as £2,500 in prize money, the incentive must certainly have been more than just the taking part.

(Notice your faithful scribe caught in the act of posing with a statue fourteen seconds in…)

Hosted at Proud Galleries, Camden, the King Of The Iron Fist Tournament aims at determining the one Tekken player with the chops to compete under pressure against the best of the best. For those not competing it offered an open bar, plentiful swag (which we snagged a bundle of to give away to you lot) a wicked atmosphere, some brilliant spectator games and some great people to just hang out with and talk games with.

The Double-Throne Of Power

The room itself was laid out simply; a semi-circle of Tekken 6 booths, a small corner bar, the stage, cough, huge TV and projector screen behind it, and the odd couch.

Events got under way with the first round instantly throwing the real contenders into sharp relief. Whilst the overall quality was high, UK entrant Ryan Hart, French Tekken representative Norman Chatrier and Alessandro Ajello the Italian were clearly leagues ahead and destined to meet in the finals. Custom sticks at the ready, these boys knew how to bring the Tekken pain; chaining massive juggle combos and capitalising mercilessly when they managed to floor their opponent in the corner. It was seriously humbling watching these guys play, and they demonstrated ably just how tactical a match of Tekken can be; reflexes are also needed but no amount of quick button presses could break down the deadly combo of a well timed guard followed by a clever counter.

Winner Norman Chatrier and his custom stick

A good range of characters were used but some were obviously favoured as top-tier tournament choices.  Paul, Bob, Kazuya, Steve and King (not the author…) all saw a lot of action, but especially impressive was seeing Jack(!!) played very well, likewise a highly aggressive Dragunov, and a tasty Jin. All in all the character roster in Tekken 6 looks seriously impressive in motion, and it’s great to know that such a variety of characters can stand up to competitive play; a testament to the fine-tuned balance of this fighting game.

Below is the winner’s final in all its glory! (Courtesy of randomhajile2 via the Namco-Bandai channel)

The final fights of the day, (see above) were uproariously received. After a few libations the crowd were avidly cheering, shouting, sighing heavily in despair at every punch doled out or received, every KO (and double KO!) depending on their chosen Tekken champion; the atmosphere as a whole explosive by the eventual climax which was taken to its last possible game, of five, two games and two matches each.

Here is a mini-photo slideshow!

We want to say a massive ‘thank you!’ to Namco-Bandai Partners, Proud Galleries and everyone else enjoyed in making this such a great day for everyone involved and a brilliant, competitive celebration of gaming. It’s days like this that reignite my passion for gaming as not just a hobby and in industry but a social past-time.

Don’t forget to keep an eye out on the site for the Tekken 6 swag giveaway!