Loman - EG Expo 09 would be "great place" for announcements

Eurogamer Network MD Rupert Loman said today that the now-announced Eurogamer Expo would be a "great place" for publisher announcements, saying the event is unique in terms of getting pre-release games in the hands of British fans.

"It's going to be a similar format to last year - lots and lots of playable games," he said. "I'm not sure publishers have many announcements to make at that time of year, generally - but if they did, it'd be a great place for them to do it.

"More important for us is to get some games that are playable at the show that have never been played by the public before."

The expo will take place on two sites this October, firstly in Leeds and then in London. Last year's show was a South-only affair.

"When we asked people how far they traveled to come to last year's event the vast majority said less than 100 miles," Loman added. "It's a bit of a stretch to travel for more than two hours each way to come to an event for one day.

"As a result there's millions of gamers in the north of England that don't have any kind of event like this, so instead of getting them to come to us, we're going to them."

The Expo, as it stands, remains unchallenged in the UK, a fact that hasn't been lost on the exec.

"The reason we started the Expo is because there was nothing like it in the UK - and that's still the case," he said. "So in terms of actually playing the biggest games this Christmas, I'm not sure if there's anywhere else to go."

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