Photo credits: Dronepicr, Gamescom Köln, CC BY 3.0

08/30/2022

Gamescom 2022 is over. Before the start of the fair, I had already gone through various expectations. First, I missed Gamescom over 2020 and 2021 and hoped that surely it would be able to take place again this year, despite all the problems. And then the time came again, even with alleged improvements in response to the worldwide Corona pandemic, such as an improved queuing system with Fast Passes, better ventilation of the halls, or equalized booths. But the closer the trade show got, the more critical voices were heard, mainly due to numerous exhibitor cancellations, and I asked myself why one should go to Cologne at all. And now I'm sitting here, and I'm kind of at a loss as to whether Gamescom can continue to exist in the long term as it was this year. Why? That's what I'm trying to answer myself with this text.

Is everything better?

When I arrived, I first noticed the positive aspects: Significantly fewer people made walking around the fair more pleasant than in previous years. There were, of course, significantly fewer games to play, but this also had a positive feeling for me because FOMO did not characterize this year's visit as in previous years. On the contrary, I took at first the time to check out some indie games and got to know some exciting new games. I have already marked two of them (The Darkest Files and Shadow of Doubt) on Steam. And I also got to see games like Park Beyond, which I would have skipped in previous years despite having more days than this year's one. So I had the feeling of getting to know new and exciting games, and above all, I didn't have to queue for hours everywhere (except for Lies of P, which I didn't play because of that). I also walked through all the other halls without stress and looked at everything exciting for me. And all that in one day!

But is it worth it?

Up to this point, it was a very positive visit to the fair for me. But in the meantime, I ask myself if it's worth going to the fair. For me, Gamescom was never a trade show where the focus was on meeting influencers (very few of whom were there this year, which was probably also because there were almost no large stages for which they could be booked) or Internet acquaintances. I went to Gamescom for the games, queued up for hours on several days, then spent 15 minutes watching and playing a new Call of Duty or Assassins Creed. As I said, I didn't miss the hours of waiting, but this year these big games were practically non-existent at Gamescom. And here the question arises, at least for me, whether it's worth spending so much time and money on small but exciting games because it would probably make more economic sense to buy the small games that are interesting to me and save the money for the train, hotel, and admission.

So for me, the first step is a mixed conclusion with a positive experience at the fair, but one that I don't necessarily have to repeat. Accordingly, the main question for me now is where the future of Gamescom lies. As an outsider, I see two main possible scenarios.

Back to the future?

A corona effect is still observable on the games market, be it unavailable Playstation 5 or a low number of major current game releases. Accordingly, many exhibitors could and probably also wanted to take a low risk at most and thus generally only planned for small booths. This is clearly illustrated by Microsoft, for example, which, as the financially strongest company on this year's Gamescom, only had a very small booth at Gamescom 2022 and did not have any upcoming blockbusters to present. Their most significant own development was new tribes for Age of Empires 4, whereby it is, of course, great that the continuation of this venerable series continues to be maintained in this way. Still, at the same time, this does not attract 100,000 visitors to the trade fair. Besides that, there were mainly smaller third-party titles like A Plague Tale: Requiem or Lies of P to be seen at Microsoft. 

And the portfolio of other publishers is also characterized by an actual lack of big upcoming games: EA doesn't have a big upcoming release except for FIFA, Ubisoft "only" has Skull & Bones as a big upcoming title, and Take Two with Rockstar Games and 2K, among others, is probably only planning for next year. But despite this lack of big games, the fair was not badly attended, as explained, and also had exciting major upcoming releases in Outcast 2, Metal: Hellsinger, or System Shock. So Gamescom 2022 has shown in this respect, especially despite this year's lack of major releases, that trade fairs are possible again and attract visitors accordingly. And soon, the more prominent developers and publishers will have to rerelease something, which could then be exhibited again. So scenario 1 says: Next year we will have a big Gamescom again with more exhibitors and more prominent game presentations after substantial uncertainties still characterized this year.

The truants

At the same time, one has to consider that some big current game releases were missing, which are still planned for this year. Sony was not present at all, nor was Nintendo, although both have some big releases planned for this year with The Last of Us Part 1 Remake and God of War Ragnarok or Pokemon Crimson & Purple. EA with the new FIFA part or Activision with Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 was also not represented. The only big established publisher that didn't show only a few smaller games like Microsoft was Ubisoft, who currently put almost their entire focus on Skull & Bones. 

The question that arises here is: Why weren't these games shown? It is striking that at Gamescom 2022 only games were shown that do not automatically become bestsellers. The fanbase will buy the new FIFA even without a big promotion phase (at least this year, when it's not called EA Sports FC yet). The same goes for Call of Duty, Pokemon, or God of War. And services and subscription games like Fortnite, Rainbow Six: Siege, League of Legends, or The Elder Scrolls Online have less of a goal of attracting new customers than retaining existing ones. 

Skull & Bones, on the other hand, is a new IP that will presumably be designed as a service game and should therefore attract a community, but it doesn't have one yet. (By the way: I've rarely seen a more boring gameplay presentation than for this game, I'd be massively surprised if this becomes a big success). 

Tencent (as Level Infinite at Gamescom 2022), THQ Nordic, or Plaion (formerly Koch Media) also don't have this luxury of a self-selling IP in the western market and accordingly had a relatively large presence at Gamescom 2022. It was striking at this point that, on the one hand, many companies were present relatively large, which previously had only small booths, such as THQ Nordic, SEGA, or Plaion. On the other hand, Level Infinite, a completely new company at Gamescom, had the largest booth. In addition, non-gaming companies such as TikTok, Porsche, Mini, or Lego booked booths. 

A new reality?

What do these observations mean? Of course, it's hard to say for sure, but at least to me, the fair is becoming even more of a pure advertising tool than it used to be. While Blizzard, for example, used to do great fanservice in the past, now, as in 2019, they weren't even there apart from a merch booth, even though they are still planning the release of Overwatch 2 (or 1.5) for this year. At Gamescom 2022, it wasn't so much a matter of binding the fans with big stage shows or letting them play the latest part of a series, but instead promoting still relatively unknown games or positioning themselves as a gaming-unrelated company among gamers. 

In the long run, I think this could become a problem for Gamescom because only small games and advertising stands will probably not be able to attract the masses, as they did to a certain extent this year. Of course, there is still the vital aspect of the get-together with friends from the Internet and/or influencers, but this can also be implemented in a different setting and, in my opinion, is not enough for Gamescom as a unique selling point in the long run. 

In this respect, it will also be exciting to see where E3 goes next year and the other trade fairs like Tokyo Games Show, Paris Games Week, or PAX. For some time now, Geoff Keighley has been trying to place digital substitute formats even more aggressively, just as publishers have been trying to establish their own online events independently of large trade shows to achieve more attention with less monetary investment. So in scenario 2, the games industry is evolving into purely digital events in the trade show sector, while Gamescom and other trade shows are becoming even more purely promotional and meeting events, which could jeopardize their identity and existence in the long run. Whether one of these two scenarios describes the future in the end is, of course, difficult to predict, and probably the truth lies somewhere in the middle, as so often the case. 

Corona concept?

Finally, a comment on the alleged adjustments of the fair due to the Corona pandemic: In fact, according to my perception, a significantly improved ventilation of the halls was noticeable. As for the other aspects mentioned in the first paragraph, on the other hand, I am much more confused as to what the new concept should have been. There was much more space between most of the booths than in previous years, but this probably had to do with the fact that the rest of the area was not needed because there were no other exhibitors. 

The system of digital queues with Fast Passes did not work at all in my experience. First of all, there were only three games where you could use this "new" concept. But I only waited in line for 10 minutes for Park Beyond even without a Fast Pass, and you could have just bought Saints Row on your own. So there was no real gain from a Fast Pass for these games anyway (the third game was Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord). But most of all, it was not possible, at least for me, to book a slot on Friday. First, the allocation of new slots for 10.15, 12.15, etc., was announced in recurring two-hour segments, whereby I first searched on my cell phone for what felt like an eternity where I could register for it. When I found the page, the website required registration in my Gamescom account, which was impossible on the page itself. Instead, you had to take a detour via the ticket store. Once you had registered there, however, you could no longer return to the original page with the bookable time slots. So you had to google this page again to find out, as described, that the following slots are allocated at 12:15 etc. After it was an absolute horror this system to get through, I thought at least that I get certain the next time without problems a slot. But at 12:15, the system put me off to 14:15 ... and then to 16:15 ... and then to 10:15 the next day. The fact that this system did not work is also surprising to me because Sony, for example, had already implemented the whole thing working in 2019. 

At this point, it is particularly outrageous that Gamescom has aggressively advertised that you get three of these great Fast Lane Passes per day with a more expensive Superfan ticket (otherwise, you get two per day visited). Still, you could not use them meaningfully, especially on several days visited, because there were only three games with Fast Pass, for which you could not book slots. In addition, it would be an idea for next year to integrate the whole thing into the Gamescom ticketing app, which would at least save the cumbersome registration step via the ticket store and would give the ticketing app some right to exist because I don't need an app just for a digital ticket after I already had a digital ticket in 2019, but without my own Gamescom app back then. But they now have a year to revise this and convince more exhibitors of Gamescom 2023 so that we can hopefully celebrate the Games again next year.