GamerCon 2017: A great promise that left many upset

Elite Gamer staff were in no way affiliated or paid to promote by GamerCon -- Our views are our own and come from our own personal experience from attendance at the event.

GamerCon was founded by Ferdi Roberts. Having founded and run a successful strategic consulting business, with interests spanning both North America and mainland Europe, Ferdi founded SaaS Markets to enable businesses and employees to easily discover, access and manage their business apps in the cloud.Ferdi had been living in the US for the past 8 years and frequented many of the gaming events. Ferdi owned an apartment directly across from the San Jose Convention Centre in Silicon Valley where many gaming events were held.

Ferdi had been living in the US for the past 8 years and frequented many of the gaming events. Ferdi owned an apartment directly across from the San Jose Convention Centre in Silicon Valley where many gaming events were held. Moving back to Ireland he saw an opportunity to run a large-scale gaming event in the Convention Centre in Dublin.

I arrived around 8.55 for a Photo Op with Ferdi but there was no word on if that was still happening. Once inside I had a wander around to see what was happening. The ground floor was quite impressive there were stands from big names such as Microsoft, Sony with VR and SoundBlaster. The next floor held the competition arena for the CS:GO and League of Legends teams. Elite Gamer sponsored two teams; Instinct Gaming and Wizard Ninjas, so I popped over to say hello. The hall looked well laid out and there was lots of room for attendees to walk in and take a look around without causing too much interference.

At 9.45 I headed up to the media room to meet with Ali-A, Claire Siobhan and UberDanger. This was a general media q&a. Heading back down around 12.30 I received a text from two of our staff saying that they were not being allowed in, the venue was over capacity with 7000 people currently inside. This went on for several hours and many people started to grow impatient, Darren Byrne (@larsson) tweeted the photo below showing a section of the halted queue.

3.4 Please note that we are required to maintain a safe environment for our attendees at all times and as such are subject to the capacities of the venue and the rooms / halls therein.  Access is therefore not guaranteed, should such capacities become a challenge or be in danger of being breached.  Equally, should you choose to leave the venue at any time, re-entry is not guaranteed.

This sparked more outrage from ticketholders as this change was made after most people standing in the queue had already bought and paid for their ticket. To make matters worse the @ferdi_roberts account was also was deleted, more than likely to avoid all the confrontation the account was getting from angry attendees. This was a strange move in my opinion as Ferdi could just have easily made his account private.

The ground floor had quite a lot to offer, Naoise O'Hare had a corner full of Retro game consoles set up with some real gems ready to play. It was great to see so many young kids getting a chance to play games that they may never had a chance to play before. There was also a range of computers and consoles set up with many different games to suit every type of gamer.

Gamestop had a stand set up offering 20% off along with a few smaller stalls as well. There was about 3 metres of space between the stalls, which is plenty if all the foot traffic keeps moving, but many people were there to stop and browse so getting anywhere near the stalls required patience.

Sony had a range of Playstation 4 Pro consoles set up playing Horizon Zero Dawn, they also had a section of PlayStation VR headsets with a selection of different games for people to try out.

There didn't seem to be anyone on hand to talk to and nobody handing out promotional items which is Sony's forté at events such as these.

HP was also there with their new Omen PC. The new chassis above is designed for enhanced airflow and extreme performance. The panel above the motherboard can be easily taken off making upgrades a simple process. The led trimming around the front four panels can be individually set with a range of colours. Alternatively, they can be set up to reflect the CPU, Memory, GPU and PSU usage. Each panel reflects the current load of its assigned function, the led is blue at 0% and gradually turns red the higher the load.

HP also have a new range of monitors that are hitting the shelves shortly and had a few of them on display. We hope to have a review of the new HP Omen X 35 in the next coming weeks. The curved monitor has UWQHD (3440x1440) resolution, 100Hz refresh rate, and a 1,800R curvature. The 21:9 display offers 34 percent more screen real estate than a 16:9 display. The display uses an AMVA+ w/LED backlight panel and is HPs first monitor with Nvidia G-Sync support.

Working together Soundblaster and Viewsonic had an impressive setup. Soundblaster by Creative make top of the line audio products. They aren't a brand you would think of when you hear "Gaming" but with their new line, they will be bringing something special to the scene.

I had a chance to check out the Soundblaster Katana which boasts 7.1 surround sound a very impressive subwoofer. It comes with its own configurable led lighting and sits right underneath your monitor for optimal audio. I also got to check out the Sound BlasterX H3, H5 and H7 -- Pro-gaming level headsets designed for the most immersive gaming experience.

Trust Gaming had a pretty slick setup of PCs showing off their gaming peripherals. I had a look at the new PS4 GXT 353 Illuminated Bass Vibration Headset which seemed pretty cool. The vibration feature means that you feel the haptic feedback through the headset the same way you would feel it with a controller. They also had a range of mice and keyboards that boasted great quality at a low price point.

Finally, there was the Razer Bus which was kitted out with the latest in Razer goodness. I was hoping to see Project Valerie (You know, that laptop with the three 4k screens that someone walked away with at CES in January?).

That aside, the setup was pretty cool, they did a lot with the small confinements. The bus was kitted out with green led lights flooding the entire area in a green glow which looked aesthetically pleasing but probably wasn't easy on the eyes after a while.