- The event will bring about 65 investors for investment in various game startups.
- It also provides for the investors an opportunity to interconnect with each other and see the potential of the gaming industry.
London Games Festival is conducting the Game Finance Market event which promises to bring about 65 investors to invest in various game startups. Michael French is the director of the festival, says, “There’s a real appetite out there for games. The overall quality is rising. So it just genuinely feels like a good moment. There are more investors attending this year.”
This is a sign of the health of the gaming industry in the United Kingdom as the London Games Festival continues. In 2020 the United Kingdom video game market generated around $9.7 billion in sales. Purchases related to video game hardware software and related products rose to 30% in 2020.
Strength of the market:
The previous record for the gaming industry was $1 billion less in 2018. However the launch of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S helped increase the numbers. But the biggest factor in driving the numbers was the pandemic and the lockdown where people played more games. The London Games Festival is conducted in partnership with Film London and Ukie. The event runs from 19th March to 28 March through a virtual event. The event will display over 40 games where Ukie represents about 500 game companies across the UK.
The investors at the event include Games London Accelerator developers and UK Games Fund companies along with delegations from Switzerland, Sweden, and South Korea. French says that the developers have to apply to attend the event as this filters out the crowd and helps the best companies for investments to show up. Last year some of this involved $16.6 million $20.8 million at the event.
“It’s bringing our attention to companies we might not know I’ve had the chance to speak to before and it’s not just about London,” said Ian Livingstone, cofounder of Hiro Capital, in an interview. “It’s the convenience of looking at them all under one roof, even though it’s a digital roof. It would be madness not to be there.”
Richard Kim who is a general partner at Galaxy Interactive will also attend the Games Finance Market event. “For me, the curation is important,” Kim said. “It’s a more manageable set of presentations.” The investors and startups can engage in meetings or set up one on one meeting through virtual interaction. The event also represents an opportunity for investors to know more about the gaming market and industry.
Livingston’s opportunities:
Livingston and Kim represent great contrast between various types of investors. Livingston sees a lot of opportunities across console, PC, free-to-play, and mobile games.
“The most amazing thing about games is that they are constantly being transformed by advances in technology,” Livingstone said. “And it’s hard to look towards the end of the year, let alone five years in advance. However, you can see trends emerging and, clearly, massively social games are the thing of today. It’s talks about the metaverse. If we don’t mention the word metaverse these days people think something is wrong with you.”
He added, “Obviously, it’s been overused, but is quite obvious that the more connected people are, the better the experience will be as in life. You don’t enjoy the best meal in the world on your own. So shared experiences always enhance the basic experience. So I think you’re going to see a lot more of that. How that will metamorphose over time, we’ll only have to wait and see.”
