The festival needs time to regroup.
Melbourne’s Queer Games Festival will skip 2025 in order “to come back bigger and better than ever” in 2026, its organiser has today declared.
“Over the last few years the festival has grown bigger (in terms of number and quality of games) and reached more people around the world than ever,” organiser Luke Miller wrote in a statement today. “But at the same time I have been conscious that some genuine opportunities to grow the festival, such as specific offers to host physical events or provide sponsorships or media partnerships, have been missed because I haven’t had the capacity to follow up.”
Miller added that the festival continues to grow, and that 2025’s festival — it’s eight annual outing — looked “very promising”.
“I couldn’t say this eight years ago but I can say it today: There is a critical mass of gamers, activists, arts bodies, media, supporters, sponsors and developers in Melbourne to make the festival an ongoing concern,” Miller said.
“However, there is simply no structure in place to take advantage of these opportunities and, due to professional reasons, I am unable to commit to coordinating the festival at its current size this year, let alone handling the structure building, on-boarding and stakeholder management the next iteration of the festival deserves,” Miller continued.
Miller promised that the festival would return in 2026, “with a Queer Games Festival that keeps genuinely benefiting the games, the developers and the public.”
Our best wishes to Luke and to the Queer Games Festival itself.
Last month, Miller released Cell Sword, a “a love letter to 6DoF” games like Descent.
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