This year, Xbox has been hosting special FanFest events for sweepstakes winners in various locations around the world (with more to come), and this past weekend saw around 500 people descending on London for the Xbox FanFest event in England. We at Pure Xbox were fortunate enough to be invited along to the occasion as well.
We didn't really know what to expect from this event, and it ended up being much more grandiose than anticipated. In addition to playable games such as Fable, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, Gears of War: E-Day and Minecraft Dungeons 2, there were various activities including a Chicken Kicker booth (based on Fable), an elaborate Laser Quest-style indoor game where you had to throw grenades at targets (based on Gears), the ability to get your controller customised, an Xbox tattoo station, free posters that were being signed by various people throughout the day, and plenty of consoles dotted around with classic games from the past.
A few prizes were on offer as well, both in terms of the individual activities along with the Xbox pub quiz that took place in the afternoon, hosted by none other than Xbox legends Major Nelson and AceyBongos.
There was also a lot of generosity on display. Everyone who attended the event was given a swag bag full of stuff, including but not limited to a London FanFest-branded t-shirt and pint glass, a Fresh Ego Kid Xbox25 hat, a free 8BitDo Xbox25 controller dock, and of course the bag itself, which also happens to be branded as "Xbox25".
Some sealed games were even being given away at one point (we ended up with Kinect Sports Rivals!). Everyone also got three free drinks including the "Beers of War" that proved very popular, while food was subsidised.
Ultimately, it seemed like everyone had a really great time for the most part, and I personally overheard plenty of Xbox fans remarking about how much they enjoyed it. The only downsides were that the initial queue was very long and left some people unable to get in for quite a while, and slots for games like Fable and Gears were booked up extremely quickly, so some people inevitably will have missed out on playing them.
We also got invited to a second event the day afterwards that was Gears of War-themed, and this one was much more focused around creators and media - you'll be able to check out our interview with The Coalition later this week. FanFest was very much the core focus of the weekend, but we also really enjoyed the Gears day as well.
Despite the fact that we were invited, there's no obligation for us to talk positively about our Xbox Fanfest London experience, but we just came away with the feeling that a lot of people had worked really hard on making the best event possible for the fans. The vibe was great, the activities were well-designed, and the freebies were a very nice bonus.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.purexbox.com/news/2026/09/xbox-pulled-out-all-the-stops-to-deliver-a-really-memorable-fanfest-london-event
