Hello and welcome back to the Retro Break Podcast. It’s been a while and I finally realised that I’ve got everything set up now so I can sit down and record a brand new episode for you guys and girls.
In today’s episode I wanted to talk all about video game markets and my thoughts on them and whether they’re worth attending and what you can expect, where the best ones are and pretty much everything else to do with buying games and visiting these different events that are put on all across the UK all throughout the year.
Now that COVID’s coming to an end, well not technically coming to an end but now that the government’s decided that it’s coming to an end, the events are back on and I went to one last weekend in London and I had a fantastic time there. And I sort of wanted to share my thoughts and opinions on these different gaming markets that are out there.
Let’s start with before markets were really a thing. They’ve only really come into existence here in the UK at least maybe six or seven years ago. I think the first one I attended was called Video Game Market and it was actually the first one of its kind and I think that was back in 2014 or 15.
There’s a load of really good ones all around the UK of course there’s the main one in London which is on three times a year I think. There’s also now regular ones in Birmingham as well which is fantastic because that’s a lot closer to me.
There’s also possibly the biggest one in the UK and the best one. I’ve only actually been to this one once before and that one is in Doncaster in the Doncaster Dome which is a really big venue for hosting events and they hire out the entire place and just fill it full of retro game stalls and it really is a sight to behold.
But it does beg the question are there maybe too many, is it perhaps spreading itself a bit too thin? And the other thing that you have to consider as well with these markets is the prices of the games. Over the years I’ve definitely seen there be a huge increase in prices but that’s not really that uncommon because it’s also happening online as well.
I definitely noticed at least with the last two that I’ve been to that it’s getting a lot busier than it used to be. I really hope that in the future they open up bigger events or they limit the amount of people that can come in or spread it over two days maybe and split the tickets evenly across the two days because it is just way way too much now.
So to answer the question, are retro gaming markets worth going to? If you’re as much of a retro gaming geek as I am then absolutely 100% yes. You’re almost guaranteed every single time to at least find one game that really takes your interest and it is just so much fun.
Thank you so much for listening, I know I’ve been a little bit sporadic with the uploads for the podcast so I hope you stick with me. I really hope you enjoyed this. That’s it for now, thank you so much for listening, goodbye!