D&D General D&D Fan Expo: London Main Show Is Coming This August

On Saturday, August 22nd, the O2 Arena in London will host the D&D Fan Expo. This event features interactive elements, panels, and special guests.

Tickets go live at 10am on Friday, 6th March. A presale on Wednesday, 4th March will be open to subscribers of the AEG Presents newsletter (which you can sign up for on the site).

The event spans two days. On Friday, 21st August, D&D Actual play group The High Rollers will perform live in the Indigo at the O2. And then on the Saturday, the main event takes place in the O2 Arena, as Dungeon Master Jasmine Bhullar puts a group of actors through their paces.

There will also be panels, Q&As, performances, gaming tables, and traders, although information on those has not been released yet.

 

[Bravesteel25]

do they have statistics about physical sales too or about D&D sales on other VTTs? Pretty sure the DDB number skews more US centric than those

Not that I know of, no. Does it skew that much?

Almost all Usican companies eventually hit a spot where they are like "Hmmm we've hit a plateau in US. Us has 330M people, rest of world has 8.xBillion people. Seems like we need to create a market elsewhere!"

If it was me, I'd be focused on selling into India. Already has default language of English (among many others); 1.3B people, rich fantasy/storytelling tradition.

That would be interesting! I've always wondered why gaming companies ignore North Africa and the Middle East as there is a large untapped market there.

I don’t know if the average Indian income is that great, Europe and Australia seem to be more promising targets after the US, once you have a decent market share there, maybe then…

Very good point. The conversion rate is going to make the ROI calculation a lot different unless they produces within the market itself.

 

[Morrus]

That would be interesting! I've always wondered why gaming companies ignore North Africa and the Middle East as there is a large untapped market there.

Because breaking into a new market is hard. Especially one which involves entirely different cultures and languages. Maybe WotC could do it (especially if they localised the fantasy rather than using the standard Western fantasy tropes) but most mid/small game companies don’t have the resources. Hell, most English-speaking game companies can’t even provide translations in Europe let alone Africa and the Middle East.

New customer acquisition has always been the job of the market leader in this little industry. Everybody else just feeds off the crumbs they drop.

If it happens, I imagine it will be because a local company starts making TTRPGs, not because a Western one broke into that market.

 

[Bravesteel25]

Because breaking into a new market is hard. Especially one which involves entirely different cultures and languages. Maybe WotC could do it (especially if they localised the fantasy rather than using the standard Western fantasy tropes) but most mid/small game companies don’t have the resources. Hell, most English-speaking game companies can’t even provide translations in Europe let alone Africa and the Middle East.

New customer acquisition has always been the job of the market leader in this little industry. Everybody else just feeds off the crumbs they drop.

Of course, it definitely takes a large committment of capital to enter a new market. The nice thing in the instance of MENA is that there is little to no presence of the tabletop industry from a local perspective, a double-edged sword if you will.

I don't even think they would need to localize the fantasy that much. Perhaps use some different art here and there, but the region pretty familiar with Western Fantasy exactly because no local companies are standing up alternative with a more MENA flavor.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

Of course, it definitely takes a large committment of capital to enter a new market. The nice thing in the instance of MENA is that there is little to no presence of the tabletop industry from a local perspective, a double-edged sword if you will.

I don't even think they would need to localize the fantasy that much. Perhaps use some different art here and there, but the region pretty familiar with Western Fantasy exactly because no local companies are standing up alternative with a more MENA flavor.

There are lots of emerging markets like Saudi Arabia or China which theoretically have a large untapped base of middle class consumers with disposable income begging for a TTRPG, and then you realize their governments may have laws against depictions of gods or undead or sorcery that would make it difficult to publish the game in their territory.

 

[mamba]

Not that I know of, no. Does it skew that much?

I don't know, but I certainly do not expect 85% of D&D players to be in the US

 

[doctorhook]

I appreciate that you feel that way, but the market data shows that the majority of D&D's audience (the fans in "Fan Expo") is in North America. Forbes noted that 85% of D&D Beyond's registed userbase is in North America, I don't think that's a completely inconsequential statistic.

I think everybody needs to relax and realize this isn't coming from a place of negativity. I postulated on why they were doing a Fan Expo outside of the market where the largest segment of fans is, that's all. I'm not American-centric and I can very much understand that very large conventions for tabletop games exist outside North America.

I’m not particularly charitable to American exceptionalism in recent months, but you’re right: I will slow my roll and not assume rudeness from you where none was intended.

Basically, the crux of my objection to your comment is that the USA already has several large D&D Fan Expos (they just aren’t called “D&D Fan Expo”), so it grates to see the suggestion that such an event in the UK should be in the USA instead.

 

[Azzy]

If anyone here goes to it, I'd love to hear about your experience.

 

[Bravesteel25]

I’m not particularly charitable to American exceptionalism in recent months, but you’re right: I will slow my roll and not assume rudeness from you where none was intended.

Basically, the crux of my objection to your comment is that the USA already has several large D&D Fan Expos (they just aren’t called “D&D Fan Expo”), so it grates to see the suggestion that such an event in the UK should be in the USA instead.

I appreciate your walk back. As an English American Muslim, I get put into a lot of different buckets just because of who I am, so I appreciate that you can tell I'm not here to chant "USA, USA, USA," about everything.

Perhaps I should modify my statement and say that I would have liked to see a D&D Fan Expo, a specifically D&D convention, here in the USA on top of this UK one and not necessarily instead of.

 

[doctorhook]

I appreciate your walk back. As an English American Muslim, I get put into a lot of different buckets just because of who I am, so I appreciate that you can tell I'm not here to chant "USA, USA, USA," about everything.

Perhaps I should modify my statement and say that I would have liked to see a D&D Fan Expo, a specifically D&D convention, here in the USA on top of this UK one and not necassarily instead of.

I can live with that suggestion. Cheers, friend!

 

[Henadic Theologian]

AXS, a ticket seller, is using an old Tiamat design as the logo for this event. Probably just a placeholder, but just an interesting note.

View attachment 430328

Hope its not a placeholder I hate the new look of Tiamat, it looks nothing like her.