Canada\u2019s largest gaming expo is back in Edmonton this week, and looks to feature Alberta\u2019s growing video game industry.<\/p>\n
Game Con Canada<\/a> runs from June 19-21 at the Edmonton Expo Centre, featuring demos of new and trending games, multiple tournaments, a cosplay contest, a community coin collection game, panels with celebrity guests \u2014 including Daredevil star Deborah Ann Woll and rapper YDB (son of the Wu-Tang Clan\u2019s ODB) \u2014and an area for painting miniatures, among other activities.<\/p>\n The biggest update to GCC is the introduction of a preceding North American Games Industry Summit (NAGIS) running June 18-19, \u201ca purpose-built B2B experience designed to strengthen and accelerate the North American games and technology ecosystem,\u201d according to the NAGIS<\/a> website.<\/p>\n A unified voice for Alberta gaming<\/p>\n The summit \u201cbrings together studios, publishers, investors, and technology partners\u201d to create partnerships, fund video game projects, and fulfill the potential of Alberta\u2019s video game industry.<\/p>\n For Chris Meilleur, CEO of Meibel Consulting and GCC, NAGIS is an opportunity to capitalize on GCC\u2019s exponential growth over four years.<\/p>\n \u201cDespite how fast we\u2019ve grown, we\u2019re still trying to convince big-name companies and IPs that Canada has an audience that is worth bringing their stuff down for that audience to see,\u201d Meilleur said. \u201cBut now we have metrics, we have an economic impact report, we now have a platform for Alberta to\u00a0speak from and have a unified voice.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Some of those studios include Devolver Digital and Edmonton\u2019s Arcanaught Studios, developers of the next Knights of the Old Republic game. <\/p>\n There will also be notable speakers, including Magic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield and video game industry legend Nolan Bushnell.<\/p>\n \u201cSomething like 80 per cent of the companies coming in are representing some of the biggest IPs in the world,\u201d Meilleur said. \u201cThey probably wouldn\u2019t have come to GCC for another two or three years, but they\u2019re coming now because of the B2B elements of NAGIS.\u201d<\/p>\n Paint the Hammer down<\/p>\n While NAGIS is about the business side of gaming, Meibel vice-president Marc Belisle wants the Game Con experience to be about the games and for the gamers.<\/p>\n One thing he\u2019s most excited for is the expansion of Warhammer-based activities during the convention, including an all-new miniature-painting area. GCC will also host Canada\u2019s first Warhammer 40K Grand Tournament.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s funny because we\u2019ve been working with the Warhammer team since the beginning, and they\u2019re still with us,\u201d Belisle said. \u201cAs soon as we start planning a new GCC, they\u2019re the first ones to call us and say they want to be involved.\u201d<\/p>\n While the event has drawn the attention of other prominent names in video games, including a national sponsorship from EB Games and the inclusion of game demos from Nintendo, Belisle feels the best parts of GCC reflect a love for gaming as a hobby, like a scale-model castle for table-top roleplaying.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re just nerds, and we like\u00a0to see really cool stuff,\u201d Belisle said. \u201cSo there are always new categories and new communities that we are continuing\u00a0to support and grow the audience that wants\u00a0to\u00a0see that stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n Game Con Canada<\/a> runs June 19-21 at the Edmonton Expo Centre.<\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don\u2019t miss the news you need to know \u2014 add EdmontonJournal.com<\/a> and EdmontonSun.com<\/a> to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post, and 13 other Canadian news sites. The Edmonton Journal<\/a> | The Edmonton Sun<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canada\u2019s largest gaming expo is back in Edmonton this week, and looks to feature Alberta\u2019s growing video game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[34435,17,34437,34436,52,24475,34434,34438,34433],"class_list":["post-90763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-alberta-gaming","tag-canada","tag-chris-meilleur","tag-deborah-ann-woll","tag-edmonton","tag-edmonton-expo-centre","tag-nagis","tag-painting-miniatures","tag-video-game-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}