The DOWNFALL of Insomnia Gaming Festival (RIP 1999-2024)

In today’s video, I’m talking about in my own personal opinion the downfall of Insomnia Gaming Festival and the announcement that it’s gone into liquidation.
I talk about my memories of the event up until the present.
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#insomniagamingfestival #insomnia #i72 #lifeoftom #syndicate

[@sepollcas]

I'm not a gamer, but I do have appreciation for the sense of community these events give.

[@scottishgeekguy]

Ditto.. (I mean... I'm a very casual gamer....have a ps5 but it's used 98% as a 4k blu ray player)

[@DidYouZThat]

Couldn’t agree with you more! It was definitely a really good sense of community and event. I look forward to going to every year but unfortunately, I think it is going to be no more

[@SXMEBXDYEditz]

I won tickets to insomnia 71 from pyro’s giveaway and it was amazing, it was a great experience and it was great because it was a E3/Gamescom like experience close to home.I’m also grateful because it was one of the last experiences with my dad before he passed. Shame they’ve closed as I was planning to go again with my uncle in September.

[@DidYouZThat]

Hey! Thanks for checking out my video, I really do appreciate it 🙂 That’s incredible you got to share an experience with your dad also, what a cool memory and a one you’ll treasure forever, those are the moments that make events like these all the worth while. Whilst there may be no Insomnia, have you heard of EGX? It’s in London and it’s also on the same weekend as MCM comic con!

[@SXMEBXDYEditz]

@@DidYouZThat yup, definitely going to try get there sometime in the next few years

[@gobsh1te]

so crazy to hear this POV, me & my group always did the LAN and are big PC gamers but post lockdown we felt there was nothing really /for/ us either, there used to be peripherals like razer or steelseries and you could look at components and actual PC build stuff and there was nothing! The last couple of years it felt like a big AliExpress marketplace with all the same vendors everytime! We fell out of love with the actual expo, still went to LAN we'd spend about 20 minutes in the expo all weekend and felt like there was nothing left to do but go back to our PCs and play our own games... it is an event that will be missed as it was our groups way to meet up twice a year and do LAN. Very sad but i think this could have been avoided! Nobody has been paid for last insomnia including John Robbertson (The Dark Room) despite selling all the tickets he does for his show just to STILL have nothing is very sad :(

[@DidYouZThat]

Thank you so much for checking out the video, I really appreciate it :-) I think it all depends on what you wanted from the festival and your point of view. As you mentioned, for being a big fan of PC gaming, I can imagine the event in recent years has become something that hasn’t interested people like yourself and others because the fact that it felt more like a comic con than an gaming festival itself.

[@NeonProtobyte]

I was a volunteer for the last one march. Staff/volunteers was great, event was good and lan was fun. I will say, though, the downfall was due to a few factors I found myself too. 1. It used to be owned by GAME from 2015, then later got sold to the other company supernova capital in 2021, (what probably happened) since GAME got brought by frazers aka sports direct so they had to sell insomnia to someone and that was supernova. That was what probably triggered the downfall a lot. Also Frazers is also talking about taking away belong arenas, so theres that too. 2. I didnt know much about insomnia before i70, but something that supernova was doing was moving insomnia dates away from bank holiday, and people really did not like that. I didnt have a problem with it, but I noticed lots of people did not like that choice. Side note I actually wanted to volunteer for insomnia in September then this happened. I also saw everything unfold too at the very end, and I woke up to the news in the vol chat that month it happened. Thanks for talking about this. Thank you. ❤

[@DidYouZThat]

Hey! Great to hear from you and your first hand experience with volunteering at Insomnia 🙂 I think I read online that the company owes around 8 million in debts which is crazy but I do also agree that selling the company wasn’t a great decision, but the problem was that Game was going to go bust so they had to sell off Belong and also Insomnia to keep shops alive. However nowadays it isn’t really a Game shop anymore 😂 I think as a customer, not having big platforms there didn’t help at all, not everyone wants to play pc games or indie games and therefore alienating an audience. Adults take kids to insomnia but the adults want to be entertained too. Unfortunately some bad decisions were made and I’m sorry for how you and any of the team were informed / not informed about what was going on and how this lead to the events of today. It was very badly managed at the end with the owner not wanting to take responsibility and cutting off all the social media team so unless you Google it, people wouldn’t know

[@NeonProtobyte]

@DidYouZThat I mean the redundancy post on the esports news website was made a day or two after it happened. I had to dig for it initially when it first went down. Mind you, after the situation, there was a point in time when after liquidation people that brought tickets for i73 (in the minute window of 1 day after i72?) Were struggling to get refunds from see tickets too. I mean, in the meantime, I hope lancraft picks off at some point. I am currently being crowdfunded by geosnipe, so I hope it reaches its goal. It was nice getting a reply from you, man. I am gonna enjoy the rest of stratlan. Take care of yourself.

[@RavensOsFan89]

I know how much you enjoyed this from the vlogs I’ve seen. Hopefully another festival pops up that maybe can try to capture some of the points you mentioned.

[@DidYouZThat]

Thank you very much, Ryan! I appreciate your support as always :-) I do know that they have a different festival in London that is yearly so I may start going to that more often

[@user-ql9wd6uh6u]

last time we went was april 2019 and had been doing at least 1 event per year up to then and so agree with what you said about the decline as we came away thinking whats happened to that and to give it miss next time. real shame as theres surely theres a huge need for a consumer event like this ?.

[@DidYouZThat]

Hey 🙂 Thank you very much for checking out the video, I do appreciate it a lot! So in 2019, I remember Insomnia being at least good and having some of the big titles and brands represented. From that point, it went downhill and they basically didn’t bother to have anyone there who’s from the big companies but instead relay on a lot of Indie games

[@theprodigiousspiderstarTM]

Atleast you have those memories and you cherish those memories/experiences.

[@DidYouZThat]

Definitely some memories and experiences I won’t forget! Just a shame it’s coming to an end.

[@ykreview]

That is such a shame to hear this i do remember seeing your vlogs of these festivals and honestly sucks to hear this so sorry man, i do enjoy the vlogs and loved the tattoo that your showed in one of the clips looks really awesome with the sleeve

[@DidYouZThat]

Thank you very much YK! I do appreciate it and man, the interaction with Syndicate was great, always a highlight I remember.

[@hunterlocke8624]

I have been going to insomnia for many years including the march one this year, I love the show but I do agree they lost a lot of things such as the PlayStation and xbox side of things. The first insomnia I went to was many years back but I will remember it as I met many people and quests like youtubers that they seem to have drifted away from, not saying the guests they didn't have great guests the last couple I went to having the chance to meet voice actors and actresses including ones from games like baldur's gate 3 was a great opportunity but it is so sad to see it come to this very sad indeed

[@DidYouZThat]

Hey Hunter 🙂 Than you very much for watching and sharing your thoughts, I do appreciate it! In terms of Insomnia in March and in recent years, yeah I agree that it’s cool they got voice actors and I know alot of people would have loved that which is cool to branch out and try something different 🙂 However with not having the big names there, they’re in a way trying to be who gaming festival / into a comic con / pc festival which is cool but it takes away from the whole GAMING element of the festival. It is truly sad it’s coming to an end 😞

[@hunterlocke8624]

@DidYouZThat hey many thanks for taking the time to read my comment and hear my thoughts on the matter, I mentioned about the voice actors before because while I was very grateful for the opportunity to meet them and I wouldn't have changed it for anything else I will say the last couple shows felt a lot different from when I first went to them. For example the first insomnia I went to I chose to go to because they had some big names from KZbin there including jacksepticeye and the ones that followed we had many more including many from a group on KZbin that helped me through a lot of tough times in life with their videos vanossgaming and many who had collaborated with them, the best thing for me going to insomnia back then was meeting these people who made some of the best content for many people like me and others that involved gaming and as I said with the last couple shows it felt like they drifted very far from that. Many thanks again and all the best

[@IMOReviews]

Great video Mike, loved hearing stories from your previous visits and its overall impact on you. Sorry to hear it’s not going to be around much longer 😔

[@DidYouZThat]

Thank you very much mate, I really appreciate it and I do like making these longer videos and just having a general chat or discussion about a certain topic. You never know, someone may buy it out and it might make a return.

[@TG5455]

So, this is sort of their version of E3 (U.S.), sadly, these big shows are slowly going away and it's not good news.

[@DidYouZThat]

Kinda like an E3 but nowhere near as good 😂

[@NtYourNormalGeek]

Definitely disappointing the current situation. I hope things can go for the better in the near future.

[@DidYouZThat]

Let’s hope so mate! Here’s to the future!

[@TennisReaperCinema-vp7bw]

I am a huge gamer but I haven't pay any much attention to gaming much due to the movies. I do still play games. Maybe it ran out of ideas of coming with great games or may poor writing or storyline? The graphics of these games will always be there, but hopefully they can make a strong rebound. How are you doing and how your day?

[@DidYouZThat]

I definitely agree with you that unfortunately nowadays video games are a little like movies where there isn’t much originality or they release so many games even physical or digital but they all get lost or can feel the same. Hopefully in the future there will be better games I get released and maybe this festival can come back one day 🙂 thank you very much for watching

[@elnubnub]

My first I series was i30 at Newbury and went twice a year since.i changed alot in that time and we stater going less after series got sold over the game a few year back. Epic lan here we come.

[@DidYouZThat]

Sorry to hear about your experience with Insomnia and thanks for sharing, especially with the LAN element which I never did but goes to show it impacts everyone.. Hope epic LAN is great!

[@Deathlakespeaks]

A shame what happening with Insomnia, went to their last one this year

[@DidYouZThat]

Yeah I agree with you. What did you think of the event you went too? 🙂

[@AnthonyAPerez]

Ah, a damn shame

[@DidYouZThat]

Really is, I liked going twice a year but I guess it wasn’t making money and sacrificing not having the big names there it’s only a matter of time until people lose interest

[@delboy3k1]

My opinion only, but I don't think insomnia recovered from lockdowns. They tried but it was a slow burn and ontop of that, i don't see enthusiasm from the big 3, Sony Microsoft and Nintendo so with little news and the lock downs it became more indie and that does not get you huge revenue. Don't get me wrong, income is there, but it's not at the level of a festival announcing new hardware or new games from old characters. I would have loved insomnia to become a single 1 year event, but that business model again probably does not work, so liquidation it is. A shame. The Retro scene which I am in is shrinking as well, so it won't be long before play Blackpool and others will be gone. :-( I've seen this all my life going to computer shows in the 80s 90s 00s and comic conventions 70s onwards. It makes me sad but I think this is life now.

[@DidYouZThat]

You definitely make some fantastic points and I definitely agree with you that because of lockdown, Indie gaming showed more potential and more ways of showing variety at these events for a much cheaper cost. I definitely agree with you that I think once a year the event could do well and also they could spend the revenue. They would have onto two events onto the one and make it one giant event which would be far better. I agree with you about the retro zone that it is shrinking and unfortunately continues to do so