Speed-dating meets gaming at SMARTY's 'Date the Game... Not the Player' London event this week

SMARTY Mobile, a UK-based, SIM-only phone network, are running a pop-up bar in London this week. On November 4th you'll be able to head along to Platform, ( 2B Worship Street, London) in order to take part in their fun twist on Speed Dating and Gaming: Date The Game.

Naturally, we've never fallen out of love with games here at Pocket Gamer, and we've always had our finger on the heartbeat of mobile gaming and more, but that's not been the case for everybody, especially through the last couple of years of the pandemic. Being trapped inside might have moved you to the realms of TV, movies, books or board gaming, but now that things are starting to open up again it's a great time to get back to gaming.

That's where Date The Game comes in. It's a pop-up based on the concept of speed dating, with the whole installation split into three different zones: Playing the field, Rekindling the flame, and Love triangles. Each of these covers a different type of gameplay, from retro gaming, head-to-head multiplayer to playing more modern releases. It's not just a strictly mobile affair either, as you might have guessed from the retro section, with Nintendo Switch and PS4 games also confirmed as showing their faces amid the selection.

It's a free event, and there'll even be gaming influencers there to guide you, as well as a promise of a free (large) pizza and some drinks. There'll also be prizes to be won on the day, with £500 worth of prizes being distributed to winners throughout the day's 45m timeslots.

If you're relatively local (or willing to travel) and interested then you can find out more about the event on its ticket page on Universe. There are 11 timeslots for Thursday 4th November starting from 1 PM through until an 8:30-9:15 PM slot and it's free to sign up.