An E3-style event and Gamescom, GameStart 2015 is a Gaming Convention Premier event in Southeast Asia. 2015 is the second year for GameStart 2015 with larger size than the previous exhibition, the organizers are confident that it will give a tremendous impact on the gaming industry, especially in Southeast Asia. We were able to visit the city of Singapore merely to experience this event. Is it as good as they say? Here is our full summary throughout the 3 days (13th-15th Nov) of the event.
The duration of Gamestart this time is longer than last year, three days open with visitors isolation. As Friday (13th) was only open to the media and VIP guests, while Saturday (14th) and Sunday (15th) were opened to the public. Located at Suntec City Convention Centre, the booth size this time has two halls topping last year’s, “There would be a lot of exhibitions and events that can be held,” said Elicia Lee, Director of GameStart Asia.
With an attendance of over 17, 000 visitors, various of communities were also there to grace the event. Like the cosplayers, gaming community that watches eSports such as Capcom Pro Tour Asia Tournament, live match of Rainbow Six Siege, and many more.
Exhibition – Booth
After we entered the Suntec hall, the first exhibition that we saw was a big PlayStation with some demos and activities provided. Demo like Street Fighter IV, Star Wars Battlefront, Guitar Hero Live, Gravity Rush Remastered, Black Ops III, Bloodborne, Fallout 4 and also a few other indie games. For the first time ever, Sony provides a demo for PlayStation VR publicly in Southeast Asia during GameStart 2015. Mini Stage was also provided to present some demo shows like Uncharted 4, Just Dance and Guitar Hero.
Showcase by NAMCO BANDAI Entertainment Inc. also performed few of its demos which were the upcoming games that will be available for purchase on the market soon. They were Dark Souls III, Just Cause 3, Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Shipudden 4 and Strike Gundam Vs. game-Force which will be translated in English.
Blizzard also took part to showcase some demos such as Warcraft, StarCraft and also Hearthstone. Other exhibitions were also provided, such as Warner Bros booth, Singapore gamebox (Indie Games Exhibition from Singapore), Capcom Pro Asia Tournament, Xtr3m3’s FIFA 16 Champions, Retro DNA (Bringing some classic games and consoles), and more. One of the interesting highlights for visitors is the Star Wars Battle Pod.
Activities On Stage
GameStart 2015 – Day One | Day Two
A great variety of activities were held according to the schedule that was released by the organizers. Activities such as the match between NUT (No Use Talking) and HBS (HontoniBuaysai) in Rainbow Six Siege showing various of techniques and new contents for the game.
An event held by Namco Bandai with two new upcoming games which are Naruto Ninja Storm 4 and Gundam that will also be translated in English.
Avalanche Studios can also be witnessed by visitors several important features that will be presented in the new game, Just Cause 3. Not to forget, Street Fighter V with a humorous presentation by Tomoaki Ayano and Yoshinori Ono from Capcom.
Apart from Rainbow Six Siege, various other of eSports events were organized such as StarCraft II Tournament, Hearthstone Showmatch and also Capcom Asia Tour Final. Rock Band 4 was also presented with a number of players playing drums and guitar live with the visitors. For the first time ever, Norihiko Hibino performing his music in Singapore, a famous musician with a song like “Snake Eater” from the Metal Gear Solid series.
Other events such as cosplay contest was also held in this GameStart.
GameStart 2016?
Overall, we had a great experience with GameStart 2015. With the addition of non-stop activities, visitors were really friendly, cosplayers are very unique and creative, and of course GameStart is an event you should attend if you are a gamer.
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