I haven't seen anything about console or LAN gaming in the event lists yet.

Do you (Gen Con) know if there will be any video gaming this year?

Thanks!

I saw last year there was a Mario Kart tournament. I would love to do something like that.

Category would be Electronic Games:
https://www.gencon.com/event_finder?category=Electronic+Games

Many of these are bridge simulator style games.

By "many" he means that, out of the 340 Electronic Games currently in the system, 274 are bridge simulators, 65 are the Battletech pods, and 1 is an in-person meetup for fans of a certain video game series.

Any word on if electronic games (LoL, Call of Duty Black Ops, racing games) will be at GenCon?

Thanks for any information!

The company that used to have LAN servers and video game tournaments stopped about two years ago. It was great because they had Super Smash Bros and Melee tournaments as well as League of Legends and other games. I never played, but my teenage son loved it and prepared for it year round. It is sad that they do not have a vendor that can come in and do that like they used to have.

Conventions nowadays, primarily due to size and the amount of people that attend, have to try to narrow the focus of what they are presenting.

Not to make this too long of a post, Gen Con targets primarily board / card / social in person interactive gamers. This is not everything they have, but is a huge majority and alone is fast approaching 100,000 people.

Other conventions, like E3 and even Indy PopCulture in the same convention hall as Gen Con, target electronic gaming and such.

Gary Con in Wisconsin targets RPG (D&D) type games.

Imagine adding another 20,000 to 50,000 or more people to Gen Con. They would need to reserve virtually all of downtown Indy. Heh.

Google and check out other cons like those above. It may be what you are really after.

G
 

My son still played RPG's with us most of the time, but it was a nice break to go play in a Smash Bros Melee tournament as well.

Thank you all for the information! My husband is disappointed, still there is more than enough fun going around the con that we probably won't notice it!

My teen's kind of bummed there isn't more video gaming going on, too. They're not as into boardgames as we are, but still want to come along for the MtG and KeyForge events, the art, cosplay, and a couple of other specific events. They were hoping to fill any gaps and down time with some video games. 
 

Last year there was both a console gaming and arcade cabinet gaming room. No tournaments or anything, but you could come by, spend a few bucks, and play some games. The console gaming room had just about every console ever made, and the selection in the arcade room was nice as well. I would like to think there'll be something there like that.

Yeah, its really weird if they just axe this whole segment of the convention, particularly because it brings in a lot of the indy locals.

I don't think they intentionally axed it; there just isn't anyone willing to set up and run a room of the scope that Gen Con usually has.

Folks may want to check the Events page. A TON of video gaming events went up, including the retro console and arcade cabinet rooms.

Woo, thanks for the head's up! My kid will be pleased.

Excellent, thanks!

I'm bringing my 14-year-old son to the convention for the first time this year, and he'll be happy to have something to do besides playing board games with dad. ;)

Let me put it in a way that I think might be helpful and illustrative: almost literally the only thing I do for pleasure in my free time is play video games.  And I have never once at Gen-Con thought to myself "boy, I wish I could play a video game right now!"

I realize things might be different for a kid, but I mean, I have been exclusively into video games since I was 5 (O.K. with a few years' break in my teenage years to be exclusively into chatting online), and I absolutely would have been blown away by everything else at Gen-Con and forgotten about video games at basically any age.