In less than a week Xbox will officially celebrate 25 years as a company in its home base of Seattle. Before that however, the Xbox team has been traveling to different cities to celebrate with fans for Xbox Fanfest, and this past Friday they made their penultimate stop in Toronto.
Luckily for me, Xbox was kind enough to invite me to join in on the celebrations on behalf of Gamer Social Club. Having been an Xbox gamer for nearly 20 years myself and getting my start as a small time Xbox influencer, it was a type of event I had always wanted to go to, so being invited was quite the surreal moment. With Jamie, aka SnipedbyaGir1, who happens to have the second most Gamerscore in Canada tagging along, we went to check things out!
A Historic Setting For Celebrating Xbox’s History
The event took place at the Royal Ontario Museum in downtown Toronto. When that was announced I wasn’t quite sure how it was going to work being in a historic museum, but the Xbox team pulled it off quite well. As soon as you walked in you saw Fable being played under a dinosaur with Xbox displays all over the place interwoven with the historic pieces already within the museum. Indiana Jones may not have been there, but it did give some Indy vibes!
After everyone got settled into the building Larry Hryb, aka Major Nelson took the stage to welcome everyone to the event. For those that don’t know Larry was apart of the Xbox team for 20 years and helped launch the Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X and a ton of games for the company. When you think of Xbox, Major Nelson is one of the first people you think of.
After speaking for a few minutes and getting the crowd excited, Major Nelson introduced Matthew Ball, one of the new leaders at Xbox. Ball is actually from Toronto, which I did not know so it was great to see him make the trip home to be with the fans.
After Ball and Hryb spoke it was time to break off and check out everything Fanfest had to offer. There were multiple lines scattered about to go play little carnival like games to win prizes. Our first stop was a line to do a little digging to find a prize egg. Our first time both myself and Jamie were able to get a sticker, which standing in line for about 30 minutes for a sticker was a bit disappointing. Later in the night we did go back again though and both won hats which was nice. The sweaters looked the best, but alas we didn’t win those.
Elsewhere there was a claw game where I was able to pick up an Xbox shirt, as well as a hockey table, because of course there’s a hockey table in Canada. There Jamie was able to score on me and win herself a mini stick. Lastly we hit up a chicken kicking game to celebrate the upcoming Fable. The natural athlete that I am I successfully kicked the chicken through a more difficult stands and won me some Fable chicken socks!
Overall the swag that was handed was quite good and the lineups, while a bit long weren’t anything crazy. Xbox did a good job of setting everything up, and it probably helped that the event was a bit more limited on attendees.
Of course the grand finale when it came to swag came at the end of the night when Major Nelson took to the stage again and announced everyone would be getting Xbox Fanfest hockey jerseys. The pictures below honestly don’t do this jersey justice, it is absolutely gorgeous. So gorgeous I’m not sure I will ever wear it, but it will definitely be shown off in the gaming room.
The team also did a great job of putting on the event and taking care of everyone. The event was fully catered with some good, Canadian and Xbox themed food as well as drinks. Xbox got some special beers crafted just for the event. Now I don’t drink beer in general, but I couldn’t exactly turn down a beers of war. I kinda wish I could have just taken a can home with me for the collection, but even as a non beer drinker it was pretty good.
Community & Games
Of course what makes Xbox great is it’s community and their games, and Fanfest highlighted both well. As mentioned Fable was there to play. Unfortunately I didn’t get to go hands on with it as they were booking time slots for it and when I went over they said it was full already. I was able to watch a few of the attendees play it though and from what I did see the game looks fantastic. I am excited to dive into it in February for sure.
There was also a couple different game setups around the room. There was a Forza Horizon 6 racing booth, a setup for all 4 generations of Xbox and a resting station that also featured a handful of consoles to play games on.
It was also nice to see and meet so many fellow Xbox gamers. There was a ton of influencers there, many I recognized but didn’t know personally. Meeting guys like Maka and MAGG was a highlight as well as a few people that recognized myself and interact with on X. Also saw Marissa Roberto from Bardown sports, Dapper Dux and a host of others there that showed off Toronto’s ever growing gaming influencers.
Meeting Major Nelson himself was also a great moment. His energy is unmatched and you can tell he enjoys interacting with the community. Even if he has moved on from Xbox, his energy and passion for the brand is second to none. That energy was on full display whenever he invited fans up on stage to do different type of trivia as well.
Xbox Fanfest Toronto was a special event, and one that will stick with me for a long time. Considering Xbox used to do this type of thing on the regular I hope they go back to doing them. Xbox has one of the best communities in the world and it would be a shame not to celebrate with them more often.
