Bennett slams ECTS as more names sign up to EGN

Roger Bennett, director general of British publisher trade body ELSPA, has launched an attack on unnamed competitors, accusing them of "being extremely liberal with the facts" and cautioning the industry "not to be misled by the claims of others."

Bennett's comments came as the European Games Network trade show, which is backed by ELSPA, confirmed the attendance of 17 new exhibitors, including top global publishers Sega, Nintendo and NCSoft - the latter of which only this week announced the opening of a European subsidiary.

They join a list of attendees at the show, which runs from September 1st to 3rd in the ExCeL conference centre in London's Docklands, which already includes Electronic Arts, Atari, Eidos, Activision, Vivendi Universal, Ubisoft, Microsoft and many more.

EGN will run alongside the Game Stars Live consumer show and European Developers Forum developer conference in the ExCeL venue.

"The games industry is putting its weight behind EGN, as is proven by the list of heavyweight publishers and development studios who have already confirmed as exhibitors," argued Bennett. "In our opinion, other organisations are being extremely liberal with the facts. That's up to them; they are the ones who will have to deal with the consequences of their actions."

"However," he continued, "no one wants anyone in the industry, whether they are travelling internationally or domestically, to be misled. We would therefore urge people in the strongest possible terms not to be distracted by the claims of others. The games industry will be at EGN in September."