The PLAY Expo will return to Manchester in 2015

By Gemma - @Juicygamereviews

PLAY Expo 2014 - Gamers enjoying some retro games

Photo Credit: JP Professional Photography

For the last two years I've had the pleasure of attending the PLAY Expo in Manchester and Blackpool. Both events were packed full of every retro gaming console you could imagine. If that wasn't enough last years event had a huge arcade littered with my personal favourites like Outrun, Operation Wolf, Track and Field, Killer Instinct and a ton more. That's not all. The PLAY Expo let's you play your favourite pinball machines, enjoy cosplay shows and grab some of the most obscure games from some of the UK's top gaming vendors. Personally, I really enjoy wandering around aisle after aisle of retro gaming vendors. I was thrilled to pick up Secret of Mana boxed and complete from Warp Zone at the Blackpool event in May 2015. I can't wait to see what retro games I can grab in October. I'll see you there. Here's the official Press Release...

PRESS RELEASE

PLAY Expo is in its fourth year in Manchester and has more than doubled in size over that time. Hundreds of screens of next-gen, indie and retro games as well as eSports, cosplay and stars of film and TV pulled 19,000 attendees through the doors of the highly-successful two day event last October.

Replay Events Director Andy Brown said “PLAY Expo 2014 was a huge leap forward for us in terms of scale and ambition but we delivered a knockout show that our attendees absolutely loved. The bar has been set very high for PLAY Expo this year, but we already have plans underway to smash all previous records out of the water. 

Show features we introduced last year such as celebrity signings, our careers fair and Youtuber meet and greets will be expanded plus we are adding even more new content for 2015 including an area dedicated to the immensely popular Minecraft, where we will be running a Hunger Games tournament and a creative build server. Of course this won’t be at the expense of any of the other parts of the show - we know how passionate our attendees are about all aspects of PLAY Expo.

We pride ourselves on being the most diverse gaming expo in the UK – where else can you see so many of the latest games and technologies alongside arcades, pinballs, retro consoles and computers? The response we get from the gaming community is overwhelming, we’re immensely proud of what the show has become and we look forward to delivering yet another phenomenal event to our audience and partners this October.”

PLAY Expo 2015 will also feature the UK’s largest arcade and pinball display, industry speakers, movie props and vehicles, card and board games, merchandise plus a host of other features. More announcements will be made in the coming months. Further information and tickets are available from www.playexpo.net.

PLAY Expo Manchester 2014 - A look back

PLAY Manchester was a whole heap of fun back in October 2014. JP Professional Photography captured some of the key moments from the event (thank you). My personal highlights were checking our Raging Justice, a cool side scroller that took inspiration from the Streets of Rage franchise, playing some obscure pinball machines (Terminator and Frankenstein) and obviously smashing the arcades. We happily completed the Turtles Arcade and I got my arse handed to me on Track and Field. Brill. 

It's all aout Retro gaming at PLAY

Enjoying the music at the PLAY Expo

Get some cool merch at Retro GT

If you haven't checked out Raging Justice then do it now!

DeLorean at PLAY 2014

PLAY Expo Cosplay show

Modded Game Boy? No problem

Mario Bros original arcade at PLAY

Gemma enjoying some pinball

Come on Gem move the Yellow guy!

Atari - enough said!

Naturally Gemma loves to buy Retro games at Warp Zone

Photo credit: JP Professional Photography

Will we be seeing you at the Manchester PLAY Expo? What were your thoughts on last years expo? Do you have anything you'd like to see there? Maybe we could let the organisers know.