London MCM Expo 2009

24-25 OCTOBER – EXCEL LONDON – ROYAL VICTORIA DOCK

Opening this year’s prestigious London Games Festival, the London MCM Expo has once again smashed attendance records with 38,366 visitors – a staggering 11,000 of whom came through the doors of Excel in the first hour alone! No fewer than 12 of the world’s top developers attended the Expo to give fans hands-on and sneak peeks of new titles, giving videogames their largest ever presence at the show and making it a must-visit for hardcore gamers and casual fans alike.

Some of the many gaming highlights of the show included Electronic Arts’ exclusive preview of zombie splatter-fest Left 4 Dead 2; Ubisoft’s first ever UK demonstration of James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game and a playable preview of eagerly-awaited stealth ‘em up Assassin’s Creed 2; plus the revolutionary first person role-playing shooter Borderlands courtesy of 2K Games.

“Electronic Arts had a fantastic weekend at MCM Expo meeting our target demographic in an atmosphere that was both charged and convivial,” an EA spokesperson said. “The queues round our stand said it all – an excellent event to allow gamers to get hands-on with our latest titles.”

Meanwhile, SEGA was giving visitors the chance to get up close and personal with Bayonetta, a fast-paced action shooter from the creators of Devil May Cry, while fans flocked to the Bandai Namco stand to try out Tekken 6, the latest instalment of the legendary fighting game franchise. While there, they could also get an eyeful of other awesome titles, including Ghostbusters, Katamari Forever and a pair of smoking hot JRPGs, Tales of Symphonia and Magna Carta 2.

Over at the Capcom stand, visitors were given an exclusive first opportunity to play as Frank West in the forthcoming Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom Ultimate All-Stars, as well as the chance to battle prehistoric terrors in Monster Hunter Tri, which doesn’t hit shelves until early 2010.

Rising Star Games had a whopping nine titles will be on display – eight of which were playable publicly for the very first time. Titles on show included gorgeous samurai romp Muramasa: The Demon Blade; haunted house horror-fest Ju-On: The Grudge; Fragile Dreams; Rune Factory: Frontier; Overturn; Little King’s Story and Way of the Samurai on the Xbox 360 and PS3.

In addition, Warner Bros. Games was proud to present acclaimed platform puzzler Scribblenauts – winner of 35 awards at the last E3 – while Koei Tecmo gave gamers quality time with a host of exciting new titles including Undead Knights; Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2; Warriors: Legends of Troy and Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce HD, as well as running a Cosplay Idol competition.

High-resolution images of all the gaming goodness at the latest MCM Expo are available for download from the show’s website at www.londonexpo.com – members of the press can access them using the username ‘media’ and the password ‘heroes’.

The London MCM Expo returns to Excel on 29-30 May 2010 for another celebration of all that’s best in gaming and cult entertainment. If you can’t wait ‘til then, come along to our other major event, Memorabilia, which is held at Birmingham’s NEC on 21-22 November and will feature games such as EA’s Dragon’s Age and Dante’s Inferno as well as a host of celebrity guests.

For Expo news and images, visit: www.londonexpo.com