Coverage: Gamescom 2024 | Zing

Daniel Jarocki

With the American E3 game show probably finally over, Germany’s Gamescom has become the world’s largest public gaming show, rivaled in this format only by the traditional Tokyo Game Show. The growing importance of the event is well illustrated by the growing number of exhibitors visiting Cologne this year, the largest number in the show’s history.

Traditionally rich stand for Xbox

Microsoft traditionally invests significant resources in promoting its games at Gamescom. This year, the Redmond giant dedicated almost half of one hall of the exhibition center to the Xbox stand. In addition to its own games, such as Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Starfield: Shattered Space, Ara: History Untold or Age of Mythology: Retold, Microsoft also devoted a lot of space to games from third-party partner studios.

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Thanks to this, players were able to try out a number of third-party games, such as STALKER 2: Heart of Chernobyl from GSC Game World, Atomfall from British Rebellion, the new part of the Commandos series from Kalypso Media and other games such as Star Wars Outlaws, Farming Simulator 25 or Two Point Museum.

Other publishers from Europe and Asia

Despite the financial problems, games from the Embracer Group, represented by the publishers THQ Nordic and Plaion, also enjoyed wide distribution. While THQ presented games such as Gothic Remake, Titan Quest II, Reanimal or Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed, Plaion reserved its place exclusively for the Czech role-playing game Kingdom Come: Deliverance II from the Warhorse studio.

Among other leading publishers, I can mention, for example, the American 2K Games, which invited the new part of Civilization, or the French Ubisoft, which presented the long-awaited Assassin’s Creed Shadows in the form of an automatic demonstration. Quite a few leading Japanese companies were also noticed. Capcom showed Monster Hunter Wilds, Bandai Namco presented the games Little Nightmares III or Unknown 9: Awakening, and Sega focused on the games Metaphor: ReFantazio, Two Point Museum and Sonic X Shadow Generations.

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This year, the expansion of South Korean and Chinese game studios was also clearly noticeable. For example, a lot of attention was attracted by the futuristic stand of the Krafton publishing house with the game inZOI, aimed primarily at the large fan base of the The Sims series from EA. Among Chinese titles, I can note, for example, the action-RPG Phantom Blade Zero from the S-Game studio.

National stands as well as independent publications

As usual, several halls with traditional big games from leading publishers were supplemented by a section for small independent games and a separate hall dedicated to the sale of gaming items. An integral part of Gamescom, within its closed business section, are also national stands supporting gaming associations of individual countries. This year, the Czech Republic was also present in this section, which for the first time was supplemented by a separate stand for Slovakia.

The rest of the Koelnmesse exhibition centre was then occupied by other companies that had little or no connection to the gaming industry. Walking through the individual halls, I came across, for example, a stand of the German police or army, attracting new recruits. Given the traditionally high attendance of Gamescom, the efforts of such public and private entities are not surprising. Personally, I would still have been more grateful if the organisers had managed to attract the full line-up of leading gaming companies.

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Sony, for example, was also absent this year, having neglected Gamescom in its plans for the last few years. Also absent, unlike last year, was Nintendo, which should hopefully return with the launch of a new console. Except for a stand dedicated to the new year of the football simulator EA Sports FC, even Electronic Arts did not show any news. The already mentioned Ubisoft was seen much more, but the only real attraction was the new Assassin’s Creed with the subtitle Shadows, which was also impossible to try directly.

If Gamescom is ever going to replace the American E3, I think it needs to include at least all three console makers (Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo) and, to a greater extent, other major publishers, led by companies like Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, or Take-Two. So, while Gamescom is probably the biggest gaming expo in the world right now, with plenty of attractions and rich content, I still see significant potential for the entire fair to grow.

Jan Urbanczyk

For us gamers, the end of August has long been associated with the Gamescom exhibition in Cologne, and this year was no exception. In fact, this time the organizers promised the largest number of exhibitors in history – from more than 100 countries. However, during the event it became clear that in order for Gamescom to become a fully-fledged global event, it will have to improve a few things, but I will get to that.

Shorter sprints between gyms

First of all, we must praise the organizers, there were no serious problems and already from 9 am the exhibition center began to fill up with journalists and businessmen who came to see the new products. Large queues gradually began to form for the most anticipated games, but the corridors turned out to be surprisingly passable.

Also, this year the composition of the halls designated for the games changed, hall 8 remained empty this time, and instead people walked mainly between halls 6, 7 and 9, which are all located very close to each other, making it much easier and faster to move between the stands.

Czech knights or big companies

Although PlayStation was absent again this year, and this time Nintendo, too, it certainly wasn’t the case that there was a lack of games. Only Microsoft presented a huge booth with dozens of games, but there were also other major publishers such as Bandai Namco, Sega and THQ Nordic, and of course interesting indie games.

Source: own photo

Source: own photo

Source: own photo

Source: own photo

Source: own photo

Source: own photo

Source: own photo

Some of the booths were just boxes with stickers, but we also found some completely unique booths. Traditionally, THQ Nordic won with them, but one of the most pleasant, without a doubt, was the Plaion booth, which presented the Czech RPG Kingdom Come: Deliverance. The booth was completely stylized in a medieval style, there were knights’ battles and sword fights, and even a market where you could buy goods after playing the demo.

As usual, there were no problems with food. There were kiosks outside and a canteen inside. And although the prices were a little higher, there was nothing outright crazy about it.

Unpleasant delay

It wasn’t all rosy though. Firstly, I was a bit confused when I needed a wristband to prove I was at least 18 years old to be accepted into Reanimal. Honestly, I haven’t seen anything like this in years past, and no other 18+ game this year has asked for a wristband. It’s not a big deal, but going to another room to get one still adds to the delay while there’s a line at the arcade. What was also funny was that the wristband was nearly impossible to remove, and the name badge almost flew off again. They could really work on that.

Unintelligible German

But I see a much bigger problem elsewhere, and I haven’t encountered it in previous years. I’ve gotten used to booth staff starting out speaking German and then switching to English, or some fan events being held in German. But this year, a German has made it to the games, and I think that’s a huge mistake.

Source: own photo

Source: own photo

Source: own photo

Source: own photo

Source: own photo

Source: own photo

Source: own photo

I noticed this right away with Monster Hunter Wilds, where about half the stations were in German, same with Metaphor: ReFantazio, where I didn’t even get to the English version, so I understood almost nothing, and KCD2 was also in German, for example. Luckily, both versions were available in Plaion, and after a few hours the exhibitor decided it was better to ask players in advance which version they wanted to play.

But I don’t understand why the game stations should be in German, limiting the number of people who can really enjoy the game. If all the stations have a language option, that would be fine, but I don’t think it’s necessary either. Sure, there are always a lot of Germans at Gamescom, but the vast majority of them will speak English, so there would be no need for a German version there at all. At least if Gamescom wants to be the global exhibition that the organizers say it is. If the German audience becomes a priority, then journalists from the US and other more distant countries will probably seriously think about whether this event is worth it for them.