Barcelona takes another step to consolidate itself as one of the main European video game hubs. From October 9 to 11, the Montjuïc venue of Fira Barcelona will host the first edition of the SAGA Barcelona Game Fest, a new event born from the union of three sector events and which aims to place the city on the map of major international festivals dedicated to video games.
The new event is the result of the merger of the SAGA Saló del Gaming, promoted by Plataforma per la Llengua, the BCN Game Fest and RetroBarcelona. With more than 14,000 square meters of exhibition, the organization expects to exceed 20,000 visitors and turn the event into a meeting point for both the public and the industry.
The festival will combine a wide range of leisure activities with a clear business vocation. There will be more than 80 activities, a hundred gaming points, eSports competitions, family zones, specialized commerce and spaces dedicated to developers. In parallel, the professional congress expects to facilitate more than 1,200 meetings between studios, publishers, investors and other agents in the sector.
The organization expects to exceed 20,000 visitors and turn the event into a meeting point for both the public and the industry
International projection will be one of the main axes of the first edition. Japan will be the guest country, Portugal will participate with its own delegation and the festival has established a collaboration with the Chinese fair ChinaJoy to open new business opportunities between Catalan companies and Asian markets.
Confirmed participants include leading studios and publishers such as The Behemoth, Devolver Digital and Super Rare Games, as well as professionals linked to companies such as Larian Studios and Gameloft. The program will also bring together prominent names in the industry such as Japanese composers Miki Higashino and Manami Matsumae.
The event will also strengthen the connection between companies and talent with a new edition of the Talent DevDay, the job fair specialized in video games that will be held on October 8 in Palo Alto and will bring together studios with open vacancies and students or professionals looking to join the sector.
Catalan will continue to be one of the distinctive features of the project. More than fifty video games can be played in this language and a good part of the programming will be developed in Catalan, with the aim of reinforcing its presence in a sector where, according to the White Paper of the Catalan Video Game Industry 2024, 74% of the titles developed in Catalonia already incorporate it.
With the support of the Generalitat and the Barcelona City Council, SAGA Barcelona Game Fest aims to go beyond a fair for the general public and consolidate itself as a platform for Barcelona to strengthen its international position in an industry that continues to grow in investment, talent and global projection.