Using the capacity of Stoneleigh Park in Coventry, the venue will offer 3,000 square metres of gaming exhibition, a 500-capacity spectator arena, and a 2,000 player computer network.

“The M Festival is the most ambitious computer and video games event ever to be held in the UK and is the complete festival of gaming,” a Multiplay statement said.

“M Festival will house the top names in the computer games industry as they showcase the bleeding edge of games and gaming technology.”

That “bleeding edge” should include the latest in kit and software, as well as sneak peaks into the future of the industry thanks to the presence of unreleased games and hardware.

The M Festival is also staging the UK qualifiers and finals of the world’s largest computer game tournament – the World Cyber Games 2008.

“The WCG has been staged at Multiplay events twice before and makes for an exciting atmosphere at the festival,” said Multiplay.

“With over one million players taking part worldwide anyone can join in and win the chance to represent the UK at the Grand Final this November in Germany.”

M Festival will also feature the i34 LAN party – a 2,000 player “Bring Your Own Computer” LAN party, organised by Multiplay.

The LAN is the largest ever put together on UK soil and will host a mammoth 80-plus-hour games marathon from Friday running throughout the weekend.

With cash prizes reaching anywhere up to €50,000 (around £39,700), Multiplay said the i34 not only has the most attendees ever but the largest prize fund of any i-Series event to date.

The M Festival will also features other activities, including off-road quad bikes, paintball, sports, archery and laser clay pigeon shooting.

A shot of Stoneleigh Park exhibition centre from Multiplay's promo video