WASD Cancelled, UK Loses Yet Another Gaming Expo

After a period of radio silence, it's been revealed that the company behind London-based gaming expo WASD has gone into liquidation. The event first took place in 2022 at the Tobacco Dock venue in Wapping, London. It's aim was to provide a showcase of upcoming smaller titles, particularly from UK-based devs and publishers, as an answer to the closure of EGX Rezzed. It was typically included alongside the London Games Festival.

Co-founder David Lilley said that reasons for the closure included "increasing costs and less demand for stand space means running events is just not viable for us anymore."

Fans of the event had speculated that WASD was coming to an end with the disappearance of its website following the 2024 showcase at London's Truman Brewery. As of now, the website link directs to an expiration notice. 

WASD is yet another knock to the UK gaming scene, following the cancellation of Insomnia Gaming Festival back in May after numerous layoffs at its organizing company Player1 Events. 

EGX (previously Eurogamer Expo) did take place this year, however it was no longer its owbn standalone show. Instead, the event operated as part of ReedPop's MCM London. The EGX portion was uncharacteristically small, and featured only a handful of stands and a severe lack of upcoming AAA titles compared to previous years. 

The game's industry, as a whole, has been hit with mass layoffs across both 2023 and 2024. Over 10,000 industry jobs were lost throughout 2023, and over 13,000 in 2024 between January and September, alone. Multiple studios have also seen closures, including the UK's first-party PlayStation developer London Studio and Riot Games' Riot Forge.