NewsBeat
London Games Festival is back for 2026: here’s what to know
The festival, which runs every year, celebrates the best of gaming in the UK and beyond, culminating with the BAFTA Games Awards in April. It’s always popular – last year, 102,000 people visited the festival’s 26 different events – and while some of the fortnight revolves around industry meetings, there’s also more than enough for gaming fans to get stuck into as well.
This year, things kick off on March 27 and continues all the way until April 19. Here’s what to put in your calendar.
This first event happens a few weeks before the rest of the festival gets going, on March 27. It’s part of the V&A Museum’s Friday Late series, but this one is gaming-inspired: curated by Susie Buchan and the V&A’s Senior Curator of Contemporary Programmes Kristian Volsing. It’s an evening that includes live-action roleplay, cosplay drag, talks about professional acting in video games and the chance to hear experimental live-coded music. It promises to be a fascinating night out.
Strange Play: Open Mic and Showcase
Though Somerset House’s festival of experimental gaming, Now Play This, is no more, one of its curators, Holly Gramazio, has been involved in setting up three new events that will run during the festival instead. The first of these is Strange Play, which celebrates unconventional approaches to play and performance. On April 13, there’s an open mic open to anybody wanting to perform ‘short playable works’, before the showcase on April 18-19. This second night includes boundary pushing performances like Tamagotchi Séance 3 (to honour our departed virtual pets) and absurdist portaloo-themed escape room The Turdis.
A nice relaxed event run alongside the Games Festival. Head to the PocketSquare Skyline Bar & Terrace at the Hyatt City East for a night featuring lots of retro games, consoles, prizes and chatting with fellow enthusiasts. It’s the perfect place to test out your speedrunning skills in company, alongside a couple of drinks.
Rules of Watching
Artists Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley and Symoné head up this game jam and following talk. Over the course of two days, 15 game makers and creatives will be linking up to explore their game development skills through workshops, play and critical challenge – before Brathwaite-Shirley and Symoné unpack their findings in a talk on April 15. The theme this year is The Rules of Watching – which, the website explains, you can take any way you please.
This full-day takeover of Siobhan Davies Studios will bring together professionals, players, philosophers, scientists and more to take part in a series of roundtable discussions about the state of gaming and storytelling, with the aim of designing your own short game. There are three strands to this event — Game Demos, Game Poems and PlayLab – so pick your favourite and get creating.
Siobhan Davies Studios, April 16; luma.com
Get hands-on time with some of the latest game releases before anybody else. Held every year at Exhibition White City, this is where studios and developers come to showcase their upcoming games (this year, there are more than 70 titles on show) and consumers get to chat with them, as well as test out those games for themselves. How could you resist?
London Video Game Orchestra
This does what it says on the tin: returning to Cadogan Hall for the second year, the London Video Game Orchestra will be playing music from some of gaming’s most iconic franchises. Think Dolphin Shoals from Mario Kart 8, music from the Final Fantasy franchise and (of course) the iconic Halo choir.