Gaming legend John Romero will be back with us for PLAY Expo Blackpool 2025. And the Doom tournament is also returning this year!

John will be in the trader hall for the full weekend where you can buy his book and merch, have a chat, get a selfie and have John sign your own Romero related items. And because you all asked so much last year we are bringing back the Doom tournament this year with finals on stage with a head-to-head with Mr Doom himself! The tournament will be on the Saturday of the expo.

John Romero is an award-winning programmer, game designer and level designer whose work spans over 130 games, 108 of which have been published commercially. John is considered to be the "father of first person shooters" having led the design and contributed to the programming and audio design of the iconic and genre-defining games DOOM, Quake, Heretic and Hexen.

He was also one of the earliest supporters of eSports and a professional-level DOOM and Quake player. To date, Romero has co-founded eight successful game companies including the likes of id Software, Gazillion Entertainment and Romero Games.

He is considered to be among the world’s top game designers, and his products have won well over 100 awards. John Romero most recently won the Legend Award at 2017’s Develop: Brighton.