Gamescom, the biggest video game trade fair in the world, is set to feature over 15 world premieres from AAA game developers before it opens this year from Aug. 20th through Aug. 24th. Held in Cologne, Germany, since 2009, Gamescom is commonly used by game developers and entertainment companies from all around the world to show off new hardware and exhibit some of their upcoming games. Exclusive trailers have appeared at Gamescom events in the past, but now many of them will be front-loaded at the beginning of the event.
For the first time, Gamescom will feature an all-new preliminary show called Opening Night Live that will be livestreamed the night before the event opens to the public. Building off the successful format of The Game Awards and organized by the same teams, Opening Night Live will offer an overview of games featured at the convention and promises over a dozen exclusive world premieres from some of the biggest names in gaming, as well as a few unannounced surprises.
Geoff Keighley, founder of The Game Awards and long-time games journalist, revealed via his Twitter that over fifteen different game companies will be announcing world premiere content at the event, including AAA developers like Square Enix, Ubisoft, Activision, Bungie, and more. He also confirmed that content streamers on Twitch will be able to co-stream the Opening Night Live show on their own channels, just like they were able to do with The Game Awards and E3 broadcasts. The pre-show streaming begins at 8:00pm CEST on August 19th.
In 2018 Gamescom featured over 1000 different developers from 56 different countries throughout the world and reported over 370,000 attendees. For comparison, last year’s E3 2018 only drew in a little over 69,000 attendees, which was that expo’s largest audience size since 2005. The convention has even become celebrated by the German government, with Chancellor Angela Merkel attending in 2017. Many multiplayer championship tournaments have taken place at Gamescom throughout the years as well, including the first DOTA 2 International championship in 2012, which boasted the (then) largest monetary e-sports grand prize ever at $1 million.
Premieres from AAA developers like THQ Nordic, 2k Games, and Sony Interactive are a good enough reason to tune in to Gamescom’s Opening Night, but another strength of the world’s largest video game expo is seeing the massive amount of indie games and small developers that flood the show floor. From the Republic of Korea’s 9M Interactive to Romania’s Those Awesome Guys, this event brings together talent from all corners of the globe. With so many different companies in attendance, the recent ESA data leak that exposed the private details of every single person who attended this year’s E3 is surely at the forefront of everyone’s mind, and hopefully digital security will be one of Gamescom’s highest priorities as final preparations for the convention are put in place.
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Source: Twitter
