Thousands of gamers travel to Game Con Canada’s debut in Edmonton

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Tens of thousands of gaming enthusiasts are moving up up, down down the halls of the Edmonton Expo Centre this weekend for Game Con Canada, the country’s only internationally recognized video game convention.

The annual three-day exhibition, celebrating one of the world’s most popular and lucrative art mediums, features a number of activities for attendees, including esports tournaments, tabletop gaming events, cosplay contests, panel discussions, and live Dungeons & Dragons with celebrities.

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The first Game Con Canada was held in Calgary in 2023, with more than 35,000 attendees. According to Marc Belisle, co-founder of the event, this year’s attendance has already overtaken Calgary’s.

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“Compared to (the first convention) in Calgary, I can honestly say this show has nearly tripled the attendance,” Belisle said. “You look at that floor map every single day and you think you know how many people will show up, but then when you walk the floor it’s so much bigger.”

Along with tournaments and panels, Game Con Canada is auctioning three Warhammer-branded gaming PCs during the convention.

The high-powered computers are worth more than $4,500 each and all auction proceeds will go to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

The PCs were donated as a collaboration between Memory Express, a leading Canadian computer electronics retailer, and French video game studio Focus Entertainment. The latter also debuted gameplay from their highly anticipated game Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2.

For Focus Entertainment, Game Con Canada is a rare opportunity for international developers to meet face to face with Canadian fans, said Sebastian Proenca, event manager for the company. For Proenca, it also marks his first visit to Canada. He says he’s very impressed with the turnout.

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“We were in Dallas last week and it was a similar event, kind of the same size though, and it had a very similar amount of people. That event has been running for more than 10 years. I believe this one is already comparable in its second year. So it’s definitely going to grow.”

While the major focus of the event is digital gaming, there is also lots of hall space in The Edmonton Expo Centre dedicated to games that involve boards, cards, dice, pens and paper.

Manny Trembly is an owner, designer, and illustrator for the board game Dice Throne, which he describes as “fantasy combat Yahtzee.” He says events like Game Con are the perfect way to experience board games, putting the dice in player’s hands and getting direct feedback. 

“Getting the dice in your hand and throwing it can be a visceral experience,” Trembly said. “That experience, it grabs them. We often get people walk up and they’ll say, ‘Hey, what’s this? Oh, dice. I’ll try it,’ and they walk away buying a $100 game within 20 minutes.

“What’s cool is the people I’ve talked to in Canada are super pumped because there’s not a lot of big shows like this here,” Trembly added.

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“This is ambitious and it’s very cool that they’re trying to build this foundation.”

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