This year’s Gamescom was the first since the official death of E3. After years of struggling to unite the big three under one roof as it had done so many times prior, the pandemic dealt the killing blow, and the Entertainment Software Association 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:finally calledಌ it qui🌳ts in December of last year.

Howeve💫r, over in Europe, Gamescom is only growing stronger. Its director, Tim Endres, spoke to me during the show and had much to be proud of as hundreds of thousands of attendees flocked to Cologne.

“We have more exhibitors than ever before, and they're more international,” says Endres. “We have more than 1400 exhibitors… coming from 64 countries.”

Endres believes that it’s the “unique concept” of Gamescom that keeps companies comin🅘g back, even though so many ofꩵ them have their own showcases.

“We are the biggest show worldwide,” he explains. “2𒀰30,000 square miles of exhibition space, more than 300,000 visitors onsite. [...] We were able to survive the pandemic. We took place every year.”

Perhaps that’s the core of it - Gamescom beat E3 to the punch. E3 𝓡only opened its doors to general audiences in 2017, and even then, only to 15,000 people. That same year, that 355,000 people attended Gamescom.

335,000 people attended Gamescom this year. While this is lower than previous years, it&rsqu🦋o;s an improvement on 2023 figures, and the best performance post-Covid.

Endres doesn’t say exactly what he thinks went wrong wi🍰th E3, but when asked if there’s room for it to return, his answer is that his own show is expanding.

“I can only speak for Gamescom,” he says. “Of course, it's a shame that E3 is not happening anymore, but when it comes to Gamescom, I am told the figures [and] it looks pretty good.

“We are also on the way to make Gamescom more international by bringing satellite events to other regions, for example, Gamescom Asia in Singapore, or 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Gamescom Latam this year🅘 for the first time in Sao Paulo.”

Of course, the area of Gamescom that most will be familiar with, especially overseas, is the Geoff Keighley-hosted Opening Night L☂ive. Endres tells me he is “very happy” with the results this year, saying it was an “excellent show”.

Despite this, the overall mood in the gaming community is that this was a much 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:lighterꦉ showcase than in p﷽revious years. Aside from 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Borderlands 4’s reveal - which had 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:already been hinted at - and Indiana Jones’ rele🦹ase date (and PS5 reveal), this felt like a much more muted Opening Night Live to what w𒐪e’re used to.

The Gamescom show floor was much the same, with some noticeable absences – Nintendo even skipped the show entirely. This did𓆉, however, allow us to focus on a lot of smaller releases (many of which we’ve already written previews for), something that Endres is proud of.

“We always try to offer a stage and a platform for the whole variety of industry,” he says. “It's very diverse, and so indie developers are an important part of Gamescom. [...] This year, there [were] more than 200 indie developers in the indie area,” he reveals. “It's so great to see the developers talk to the consumers and get direct feedback on their games, and being able to connect them with the business people, with publishers and so on.”

There was, however, one undeniable 🐭success at Opening Night Live this year - no stage invaders.

“Security is the top priority at Gamescom,” says Endres. “We revised our measures and💖🦂 enhanced them.”

Industry Events In The Face Of Layoffs

However, we can’t tal⭕k about the games that the industry has to offer without also acknowledging the struggles that those who make them are going through. Layoffs have been constant, with fresh waves of job losseꦍs coming in with seemingly no end in sight.

I asked Endres if Gamescom has responded to this, and he says that the show is always “aiming to go with th🔯e pace of the industry”. He also says that Gamescom hosts “platforms” in which these issues can be discussed, citing the official opening of the show by German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck as an example. However, he also suggests that diversifying Gamescom’s offerings will help, and praises the show for opening up to tabletop games - another area of the industry that has faced layoffs.

The Future Of Gamescom

As exhibitors return home and prepare for the next showcase, it’s safe to say that Gamescom has weathered a year of light💜 offerings. Attendance was higher than ever, and it certainly didn’t struggle to fill the halls of the Koelnmesse, even with one of the big three noticeably absent.

It helps that Keighley now has a monopoly on big shows like Opening Night Live - only rivalled by his own winter show, The Game Awards. Unsurprisingly, Endres tells me that Opening Night Live is there to stay, so we can expect♔ the format to remain much the same.

But it is getting bigger. As Endres says towards the end of our chat, “we want to grow further”, both in Germany and abr🐷oad. We already saw it this year, as Opening Night Live doubled its audience size. It only looks like this trend will continue into 2025, as Gamescom is eager to extend its reach.