Gamestart Asia 2014

Elicia Lee the orgainzer of Gamestart Asia 2014 speaking on stage.

Over the weekends at Suntec city the inaugural Gamestart Asia event was being held, bringing down selected titles from TGS and other internationally accliamed game-cons right to our own doorstep. This event its the first of its kind in Singapore.

Partnership renewal between Sony Computer Entertainment and Games Solution Centre under MDA and Nanyang Polytechnic. 

The event started early at 10am on saturday where the media were invited for the opening ceremony and closed door preview of the event ground. We also witness the Partnership renewal between Sony Computer Entertainment and Games Solution Centre under MDA and Nanyang Polytechnic.

One of the first few who got thier PS4 at the event  

Outside the door, the queue to enter the door was snaking around the fourth level of the convention center, the queues for the PS4 sales were said to started since Friday afternoon. The first three person who got thier hands on the PS4 was given a Free Sony Xperia Z3 Compact, with such a good deal its no wonder people started queuing that early.

Project cars hands on at the Bandai Namco booth

2K Games Evolve attracted many to try, the queue for it was as long as 90 mins,

Visitors get to have thier hands on  soon to be release games like Bloodborne, The Order 1886, Until Dawn and Guilty Gear Xrd for the consoles. Evolve for the PC and Project cars for multi-platform. I have personally tried both games and is looking forward to thier launch. I am very likely to buy Project Cars. Evolve gameplay was very intense.

Yosuke Futami(Producer of Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment)

Fans also get to meet the game producers upclose,Masaaki Yamagiwa(Producer for Bloodborne), Junichi Yoshizawa(Producer of Freedom Wars) and Yosuke Futami(Producer of Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment) were all present at the event.

Capcom Pro Tour Asia


Naruto beat the producer Challange

Several gaming Competion were also held at the event as well.  Most notably the Capcom Pro Tour Asia where top Asian Street Fighter players like RZR Xian and MCZ Daigo Umehara will competing for the championship and a chance to participate in the global Capcom Pro Tour Finals in the US.

As for the Public there were games like Drive Club time trial where the winners get to ride in a real supercar and Naruto beat the producer Challange where theypit thier gaming skills agianst the game producer himself. (PS:I think he is still swimming back to japan XD~ he joked that if he got beaten during the challange and he were Beaten not once not twice but four times! XD~!)   

Local indie game developer sharing thier insights of working in the local game industy.

Local indie Game developers also shared thier insights of join the local game industries from thier personal expriences during one of the panel session on stage.  They were encouraging people from all walks of life to join the local talent pool.  

    Several Retro console on sale at the Verse City booth

There were also many retro consoles setup for the vistors to enjoy.

Guess who is enjoying the Retro gaming experience as well?

Cosplay guest Yasemin Arslan trying out Puzzle fighter.

Old time gamers have a nostogical early gaming days expreince back at the Versus City - Singapore booth where many old times consoles like the NES were setup for people to play with them as well as old time aracade machine that feature games like the puzzle fighters and such. Several cosplayers were spotted enjoying themselves at the booth. Even Yasemin had her hands on puzzle fighter machine.

There were even brand new and pre-loved Retro consoles on sale as well as several preowned cartridges of rarity like for example the orginal Japanese pokemon cartridge!

Yuegene Fay trying out the 3D scanning and 3D model printing at the Cadaq booth

Cadaq booth showcasing the 3D scanning and 3D model printing technology. Cadaq, There were the sponsor for the Game On! GameStart Cosplay Competition prizes all winners of the Game On! get to expreince the 3D Scanning and Printing technology in person.

Cadaq is social enterprise that provides skill training to those with disabilities, and enable them to find employment, Cadaq works primarily with the Singapore Association for the Deaf and a portion of their proceeds go to the Association. A number of their staff are also deaf, and have excelled in roles as designers.

Judges inspecting Blitzcrank costume during the prejudge session.

Game on! Cosplay Competiton. 

Yasemin taking a Selfie with her fan during the meet and greet session.

Not forgetting the GameStart Game On! cosplay competiton where cosplayers pit thier skills from Craftmanship to Stage Performance. Judged by the panel of cosplay guest Yuegene Fay from Thailand Yasemin Arslan of Australia & Singapore's very own Tessie, The winners walk away with cash prize and several other goodies. Fans of Yuegene and Yasemin also get the meet them upclose at the Neo Tokyo Project booth.

Head on over to the Gallery Below for more pictures!
Also checkout the interview session here if you haven't

"Over 12,000 visitors from Singapore and
countries including Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Australia, America, Japan and Philippines entered the doors of Hall 403 on October 25 and 26."  

- Official Stats from the organizers  

Quotes from Exhibitors/Partners

"We are delighted to have been part of the inaugural GameStart conference. As we celebrate our 20th anniversary, we are pleased to see the continuous support and enthusiasm from our PlayStation fans in Singapore. GameStart 2014 provided us with a good platform to showcase our latest game titles on the PlayStation®4 and PlayStation®Vita. We look forward to bringing an
innovative gaming experience to consumers in the region.”
-Hidetoshi Takigawa, Southeast Asia Region Head, Sony Computer Entertainment Hong Kong Limited Singapore Branch

“GameStart was a great event for us and thanks to the GameStart team, it was the first time we had a gaming event of this scale. We hope for further collaborations in future to put out a bigger and better show for all our supporters.”
-Rainel Tan, General Manager, BANDAI NAMCO Games Asia

“We are pleased to have been part of the event and are looking forward to the next one!” 
-Alan Chou, Publishing Director, Blizzard Entertainment

“GameStart provided us a platform to bring EVOLVE into the hands of fans ahead of the EVOLVE Big
Alpha this weekend. We were delighted to see a great turnout, as well as an awesome reception from the gamers for EVOLVE at the show. The event was a huge success for us.” 
-Jason Wong, Senior Publishing Director, 2K

“Gaming and cosplay have always been intertwined, and bringing cosplay to GameStart was the natural thing to do. Cosplay brings the awesome characters we encounter in video games to life, and GameStart was a great place for cosplayers who game and gamers who love cosplay to meet and bond. We hope to continue contributing to GameStart, and to help the convention grow.”
-Jason Koh, Neo Tokyo Project

Gamestart Asia 2014 was certianly a good start. The response to the event was so good that they were a little overwhlemed by the crowd. Let look forward to a bigger and even better Gamestart next year!