Mee exhibitors, more space and more and more international: The computer games fair Gamescom is starting its next edition with the best of omens. From next Tuesday, Cologne will once again be transformed into a large playground. With an extensive supporting program and events scattered across the city, everything revolves around gaming on the console, PC or smartphone under the motto “Simply play together” until Saturday. Canada is this year’s partner country.
Around 900 exhibitors from more than 50 countries will present their highlights in Cologne – including many game titles that gamers from Germany can play for the first time. The organizers – the industry association BIU and Koelnmesse – are putting technical innovations such as virtual reality and eSports, which is currently booming in Germany, in the limelight as important trends this year. No other sport has developed from a niche into a mass phenomenon in such a short time, says Felix Falk, Managing Director of the BIU.
It could be exciting what will be seen in Cologne in terms of virtual reality. Most recently, market observers had identified a significant cooling off in interest among users. But the games industry is seen as a driver of innovation. It also serves as a signal to other industries as to how the technology will establish itself in the future.
So far, Sony in particular has been ahead of the game among gamers with the Playstation VR, which takes users into virtual worlds via Sony’s console. The Japanese company has sold around a million headsets to date. HTC should also have news in Cologne with them. The HTC Vive belongs to the upper class of VR devices, which, however, require a very powerful computer.
With both headsets, however, the user hangs on the cable when playing. The Taiwanese manufacturer is therefore working on solutions to make its headset independent and thus give users more freedom of movement. So far only available in China, the first solutions could soon come to Europe – and possibly be ready for testing in Cologne.
New consoles
Identifying the big highlights in the games is “really difficult” this year, says games specialist Stephan Freundorfer. All in all, there will hardly be a game in Cologne that hasn’t already been shown at the E3 games fair in Los Angeles. Nevertheless, the providers are coming up with a wealth of titles for which gamers in Cologne will certainly have to wait patiently in line to play them for the first time in this country.
Although the industry is in the middle of the console generation, Microsoft will be showing its Xbox X for the first time in Germany. In Los Angeles, the company announced the market launch of the new power pack for November 7th. As the smallest and most powerful console ever, it is said to outperform conventional devices by 40 percent.
For the first time, the internationally renowned Gamescom will be opened by Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU). Above all, this underscores the growing economic and cultural importance of the industry, which is now also being recognized in politics. Numerous other guests from politics are also expected, who want to comment on games and current topics four weeks before the federal elections in a specially built “election campaign arena”.
The companies in Germany turn over a total of 2.74 billion euros with computer and video games and the corresponding hardware. According to a current study by the Hamburg Media School, the industry is strongly characterized by medium-sized companies. Accordingly, 89 percent of the companies generate up to five million euros per year.
However, according to the Game Bundesverband, many of them would have to take great financial risks with a high proportion of self-financing. Reason enough to drum up more funding at Gamescom.