There will be no shortage of video games in the Philadelphia area this summer, as the TooManyGames convention, which began 20 years ago, returns and is bigger than ever.
The show will be held at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oakland. June 28th to 30th There will be a massive marketplace, esports tournaments, and special guests including influencers and voice actors.
Other events: PAFA will hold yoga classes in the Rotunda
Vendors will be selling a variety of video games and consoles, from old Ataris to the latest PlayStation 5s.
“We've become one of the largest, and as far as I know, best retro gaming marketplaces in the country,” said Heather Truitt, co-owner and co-founder of TooManyGames.
If you don't want to buy any retro games, you can visit the free play games area to play titles for a variety of consoles.
More competitively minded players can take part in eSports or casual level video game tournaments. This year's eSports tournament games are “Street Fighter 6,” “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate,” and the recently released “Tekken 8.” More casual players can play “Mario Tennis” and “Mario Kart.”
New to the 2024 Expo will be the Classic Tetris Philadelphia Regional Championship, with a minimum prize pool of $500 and qualification for the Classic Tetris World Championship. Tournament organizers will also host a “Dr. Mario” tournament with a $100 prize.
The expo will not be limited to video games only, but will also feature board games, trading card games and even escape rooms.
“We want to create an inclusive environment,” Truitt said. “This isn't just a video game convention, this is an all-inclusive gaming convention.”
A showcase of independently developed tabletop and video games will feature the work of local companies like Retroware, which operates arcade games in addition to developing retro-inspired indie games.
Traditional fandom expo festivities, including cosplay contests, an art market and plenty of special guests, will also be part of TooManyGames 2024. The art market in particular is sure to be busy: Truitt said there are at least 200 vendors on a waiting list.
Notable voice actors attending the expo include several “Resident Evil” voice actors, including award-winning actor Neil Newbon, who voices fan-favorite character Astarion in “Baldur's Gate 3,” Colleen O'Shaughnessy, who voices Miles “Tails” Prower in the “Sonic the Hedgehog” games and movies, and Nick Apostolides, who voiced Leon Kennedy in last year's “Resident Evil 4” remake.
TooManyGames hopes to continue the growth it has seen over the past decade.
“The culture has changed a lot in the last 10 years,” Truitt said. “Anime and video game conventions used to be a world people didn't go to. They were a little more underground. Times have sped up, and now you can go to Target and buy anime, manga, and everything.”
The permanent demise of E3, once the world's largest video-game convention, is another opportunity: Mr. Truitt hopes to attract one of the “major game companies” to the expo as an exhibitor, though he declined to say which one.
While TooManyGames doesn't have the same attendance as other expos like PAX or Gamescom, attendance numbers are growing every year, with a reported 20,634 people attending in 2023. The expo will occupy the entire Greater Philadelphia Expo Center starting in 2022.
Founded in 2004 as the East Coast Gaming Expo, the show changed its name to TooManyGames in 2007. With her husband, Paul Truitt planned the fair from 2004 to 2006, and took over planning it with Ryan and Virginia Schott in 2007. An evaluation by the Valley Forge Convention and Visitors Bureau found that in 2019 the fair generated more than $1 million in economic impact for the county, Truitt said.
Truitt said the fair has always tried to have a “local approach,” but now “people come from all over the world.”
Too Many Games 2024
June 28th (Friday) to June 30th (Sunday)
Greater Philadelphia Expo Center
Tickets starting at $40
100 Station Avenue, Oaks
