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Home » GTA Actor Says Disastrous Florida Gaming Convention ‘Put the Con in Comic-Con’
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GTA Actor Says Disastrous Florida Gaming Convention ‘Put the Con in Comic-Con’

News RoomBy News Room12 August 2025Updated:12 August 2025No Comments
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Last weekend, a number of gaming fans traveled to Tampa, Florida to attend the National Gaming Expo. The convention, in its first year, promised encounters with actors such as the casts of Grand Theft Auto V, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Mortal Kombat, as well as the former voices behind Nintendo’s Peach and Bowser, Donkey Kong composer Grant Kirkhope, and a lot more.

Instead, convention attendees were treated to empty halls, missing talent, a no-show photographer, and…camels?

The National Gaming Expo took place from August 8 through 10 at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa. The official website claims it expected around 30,000 people in attendance, and promised talent signings, photograph opportunities, vendors, and a cosplay contest. On social media, accounts such as Celebrity Talent Booking and voice actors like Ned Luke (GTA V) and Rob Wiethoff (Red Dead Redemption) promoted their appearances at the convention. Wiethoff, who plays John Marston, whipped up a particular fervor with some initial teasing of “exciting news” that got fans excited for some kind of franchise news – but it turned out he was just talking about a reunion of the Red Dead Redemption 1 and 2 casts at the expo.

However, that reunion was…disorganized, to say the least. The entire convention was disorganized. Despite the National Gaming Expo’s lofty promises, fans paid $40 for a single-day ticket, $90 for the weekend, and showed up to a pretty barren event, as revealed in various photos and videos on social media:

So this was my first con and didn’t what to expect but this was definitely not it. Don’t support Mike wittenberg, because I was at the national gaming expo and it was so awkward and unorganized 😬 pic.twitter.com/vgi2D7DWvD

— Plapapus 🫧 (@plapapus) August 11, 2025

The National Gaming Expo was a disaster. The con floor was empty, maybe 10 vendors. The only panel that even happened was such a mess, Ned Luke took the MCs job cause he was doing such a bad job. They screwed over the celebs. And now they’re deleting their social media. @ngeshow pic.twitter.com/3KjP8tBzci

— Dan 🎸✝️ (@Husbeep) August 10, 2025

Accounts on social media lament the dismal number and assortment of vendors and booths, as well as a lack of security. One Reddit comment complained there were health insurance and T-Mobile vendors and barely any to do with gaming. “It was the equivalent of walking into a Best Buy searching for a game, seeing the shelves filled with broccoli, dish soap, and various car parts. Then somewhere in the back of the store there’s an open box VCR for $600,” said another commenter.

Inexplicably, one attraction that was present at the expo was…a petting zoo, featuring a camel and a few other farm animals:

The National gaming expo has gotta be the worst convention ever produced all they got is a camel and no games pic.twitter.com/WhOExks6Ha

— funkonoki (@funkonoki) August 9, 2025

The convention didn’t just look barren. Apparently, a lot of talent that was supposed to be there either didn’t show up at all, or showed up late or sporadically in a way that made it challenging for fans to encounter the actors they wanted to see. Several attendees who claim they went to the show on Friday said that the Red Dead Redemption cast wasn’t there at all, and were told there was some mistake made with their agency. Others did report that they got to meet the Red Dead Redemption crew later, but complained that paid photo opportunities with them and other talent were canceled due to the one photographer allegedly hired by the convention not showing up.

As a result, attendees have been making their feelings known to the National Gaming Expo organizers in whatever way they can. The convention’s official Instagram page has been deleted and its Facebook event page has been locked, but the Facebook comments on the Florida State Fairgrounds’ post for the event are filled with upset attendees. Many posters are issuing warnings about the event’s organizer: CEO of NGE Event Production Michael Wittenberg.

Image source: https://www.reddit.com/r/tampa/comments/1mmpuu5/national_gaming_expowhat_a_mess/

Wittenberg, who formerly ran the National Vape Expo before it was shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, started the National Gaming Expo this year just months after returning from a year-and-a-half-long stint in a Dominican Republic prison. He was arrested there in 2023 for international narcotics trafficking during a networking event at a resort, after signing to accept a “700-pound pallet filled with promotional items, but Dominican officials sniffed out pills, gummies, and cartridges containing THC, the active ingredient in marijuana,” according to CBS News. Wittenberg says the items in it were all federally legal in the United States. “Did I know for sure that stuff was in the pallet? No. But i thought it was a possibility. Was I stupid or ignorant? Yeah. I wasn’t guilty. There is a difference,” Wittenberg said at the time. “I’ve done major conventions with these products for 10 years in major convention centers across the country.”

Image source: https://www.facebook.com/FLStateFair/posts/this-weekend-at-the-florida-state-fairgrounds-national-gaming-expo-location-expo/1147380534093222/

The warnings shared by convention-goers, however, are less about the THC and more about Wittenberg’s history with conventions. According to commenters, Wittenberg has run threadbare, scammy events before, with some people even popping in to allege he’s failed to pay workers in the past. While it’s difficult to find a useful record online of his past events, these claims are somewhat supported by at least one review of the National Vape Expo still floating around the internet. “During the weekend I had to come up with ways of passing the time such as counting the number of steps between stands and taking regular coffee breaks,” reads the review from a staff reporter at Vapouround from 2017. “Never in my life have I made a large flat white latte last so long. Normally I am an espresso kind of guy but the five seconds they take to drink would not just cut it when I am running down the clock at such a vaping non-event as this.”

A handful of involved parties have already publicly commented on the situation at National Gaming Expo. In a statement to IGN, GTA 5’s Michael De Santa actor Ned Luke said simply, “It was a scam, the guy who ran it was a con artist. He put the con in comic-con.”

Venture Authentics, which had advertised “send-ins” at the expo (letting people send in collectibles to be autographed by talent) has apologized and said it will issue refunds to customers, due to “James Burnes, Michael Antonakos, Grant Kirkhope, and others” not attending. In a Facebook comment, the company clarified: “this one is not the guests fault, it’s 100% on the convention. I’d rather not elaborate publicly, but do not blame the guests. They seem to be just as shocked.”

Roger Clark, the voice of Arthur Morgan, similarly acknowledged his absence:

It is with my deepest apologies that I say I wasn’t able to attend the last day of National Gaming Expo today as was announced. My absence was due to circumstances outside of my control. Crazy shit man. Sorry.

— Roger Clark (@rclark98) August 10, 2025

A number of individuals on social media who say they attended the convention are now trying to get refunds. Some are reporting success disputing the card charges for the tickets or getting refunds through Eventbrite, while others say they are unsure how to get a refund at all on photo opportunities that never happened.

IGN has reached out to Celebrity Talent Booking (which seems to have coordinated many of the actors), Michael Wittenberg, the National Gaming Expo, the Florida State Fairgrounds, Kenny James, Michael Antonakos, Grant Kirkhope, James Burnes, Take-Two and Rockstar (for good measure), and the agencies representing Roger Clark, Rob Wiethoff, and Samantha Kelly for comment.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected].

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