Game Con Canada looks to bring gaming world to Edmonton

Canada's largest gaming expo is back in Edmonton this week, and looks to feature Alberta's growing video game industry.

Game Con Canada 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 — including Daredevil star Deborah Ann Woll and rapper YDB (son of the Wu-Tang Clan's ODB) —and an area for painting miniatures, among other activities.

The biggest update to GCC is the introduction of a preceding North American Games Industry Summit (NAGIS) running June 18-19, "a purpose-built B2B experience designed to strengthen and accelerate the North American games and technology ecosystem," according to the NAGIS website.

A unified voice for Alberta gaming

The summit "brings together studios, publishers, investors, and technology partners" to create partnerships, fund video game projects, and fulfill the potential of Alberta's video game industry.

For Chris Meilleur, CEO of Meibel Consulting and GCC, NAGIS is an opportunity to capitalize on GCC's exponential growth over four years.

"Despite how fast we've grown, we're 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," Meilleur said. "But now we have metrics, we have an economic impact report, we now have a platform for Alberta to speak from and have a unified voice."

Some of those studios include Devolver Digital and Edmonton's Arcanaught Studios, developers of the next Knights of the Old Republic game.

There will also be notable speakers, including Magic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield and video game industry legend Nolan Bushnell.

"Something like 80 per cent of the companies coming in are representing some of the biggest IPs in the world," Meilleur said. "They probably wouldn't have come to GCC for another two or three years, but they're coming now because of the B2B elements of NAGIS."

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.

One thing he's 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's first Warhammer 40K Grand Tournament.

"It's funny because we've been working with the Warhammer team since the beginning, and they're still with us," Belisle said. "As soon as we start planning a new GCC, they're the first ones to call us and say they want to be involved."

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.

"We're just nerds, and we like to see really cool stuff," Belisle said. "So there are always new categories and new communities that we are continuing to support and grow the audience that wants to see that stuff."

Game Con Canada runs June 19-21 at the Edmonton Expo Centre.

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