After two years of pandemic-induced event scarcity, the WASD Video Games Expo’s inaugural outing marked the long-awaited return of live events for the UK games industry.
It’s been two whole weeks since WASD opened its doors to the general public and, with all the excitement of Easter out of the way, we’ve had plenty of time to start getting nostalgic about our time there.
And what a time it was.
As avid supporters of WASD and gaming natives, Diva was there in force.
- We were proud to be headline sponsors of both the main stage and the opening night’s industry mixer.
- Our Chief Strategy Officer, James Whatley, hosted the first Playable Futures LIVE panel session, with industry veterans John Clark (CEO, Curve Digital), Agostino Simonetta (Chief Games Officer, Thunderful) and diversity and mental health ambassador, Gina Jackson OBE. Video coming soon.
- Roving content creators (and resident Twitch hosts), Charlotte Willis and Paul Weedon were out and about meeting the devs and publishers to share news about their amazing games by creating content for WASD’s social channels as well as Diva’s own.
- And of course, our teams were there meeting clients and celebrating (and playing!) the many fantastic games on show.
Speaking of games, WASD had buckets full! It marked the first time anyone had had the opportunity to get their hands on games such as Curve Games’ Golf Gang, Devolver Digital’s Trek To Yomi and Cult of the Lamb, Team17’s Marauders and SEGA’s Two Point Campus, as well as countless other titles that we’ll be coming back to later.
We came, we saw, we posed with mascots.
On a serious note, as the first major games event to take place in the UK in quite some time, it goes without saying that Diva was thrilled to have played a part in bringing WASD to life.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be looking back at some of our personal insights and highlights from the event: from creating the brand assets for WASD, reflecting on a stellar line-up of talks (including our own Playable Futures session), and sharing interviews with some of the talented developers and publishers we met along the way.
In the meantime, we’ll leave you with this video from our friends at Chuhai Labs, whose energy for us captures exactly why we loved everything about WASD.
OH DAMN
— Chuhai Labs (@ChuhaiLabs) April 11, 2022
The first @WASDlive_ is officially done! We had the time of our lives showing @CursedtoGolf, making new friends, making fun of old friends, and playing so many interesting games.
It ruled and you bet your ass we are coming back next year! pic.twitter.com/Wdbv2lOGCN
