Preparations for the world’s biggest event for computer and video games are well underway. Many companies have already confirmed their digital participation as official partners. Among them are the top international companies:
- Activision Blizzard
- astragon
- BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment
- BETHESDA
- Electronic Arts
- ESL
- Headup
- Indie Arena Booth
- Koch Media
- Microsoft/Xbox
- SEGA Europe
- Wargaming
- Ubisoft
- Yager Development GmbH
- and many more
In addition to this, more partnerships are currently being concluded and regularly announced on www.gamescom.global . These are supplemented by many partnerships with content creators and platforms, which will be announced at a later date.
The guiding theme of gamescom 2020 has also been defined: with “Playing into the future”, gamescom focuses on the many positive effects of games and the games industry on society: computer and video games have helped millions of people during the corona crisis, for example, by also helping to maintain contact with friends and family during the lockdown. Classic sports events took place during the corona pandemic as e-sports tournaments, while it was possible to visit concerts and entire festivals within games, and numerous charity activities took place within the community. It was even possible to participate in research on the corona virus thanks to the experimental game “Foldit”. This means that games and their communities were already pointing a finger in the direction of gamescom, because, although the world’s largest games event of the year could not take place on location in Cologne, it will still bring millions of gamers together in 2020 to follow the biggest new products and news and to celebrate games culture.
Oliver Frese, Chief Operating Officer of Koelnmesse:
“Thanks to the innovative and bold games industry and games community, we can together organize one of the biggest events in the world with gamescom 2020, even in these times, and thus embark on new paths. This is once again evident: there was already a lot of support from companies shortly after communication of our digital concept for gamescom 2020, as is made impressively clear by the long list of first partners. Many more partners will follow. Millions of fans can now look forward all the more to an eventful gamescom 2020.”
Felix Falk, Managing Director of game – Association of the German Games
Industry: “In the difficult times of the corona pandemic, games have helped millions of people worldwide and provided fun and pleasure. They have helped friends and families to stay in touch, even when we could not leave the house. The games industry and community has always been characterized by this positive and future-oriented attitude. gamescom will thus once again provide a forecast in 2020 of what will be in the living rooms of millions of gamers tomorrow, on the screens the day after tomorrow, and will enrich all of our lives in future.”
Trend “New console generation”
The successors to the current generation of consoles have been announced for the end of the year with the PlayStation 5 from Sony and the Xbox Series X from Microsoft. Millions of fans worldwide are already waiting with longing for the new devices. The new console generation is thus the top trend of this year’s gamescom. Finally, there will be many announcements and much news revolving around the consoles in the context of gamescom at the end of August, only a few weeks prior to its start. The new models offer especially high performance, thus enabling gaming worlds of a magnitude and wealth of detail that have been impossible to realize up to now. The new devices master, among other things, so-called ray tracing, with which a novel calculation of light enables especially realistic graphics. Where one needed an entire computer centre for this a few years ago, this will soon be found in the new consoles in the living room.
Trend “Games at school”
Corresponding with the start of the school year in many federal states at the end of August, the second gamescom trend this year is “Games at school.” There has already long been a large and varied offering of serious games, with which one can learn playfully. More and more parents and children trust in such games. Due to the corona-related closures of schools, the need for them has increased dramatically. However, the corresponding serious games have to date primarily been used at home and in the private realm. Serious games have many positive qualities that also provide help with teaching and learning in school: they are fun, motivate, and thus improve learning success. Unfortunately, many schools in Germany are still too poorly equipped to consistently include serious games in the school routine. Which is why the focus of the gamescom congress is also on digital education this year. There, among other things, best practice examples will be shown and the exchange between educators promoted.
About gamescom
gamescom is the world’s largest event for computer and video games and Europe’s largest business platform for the games industry. Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, gamescom 2020 will be held exclusively in digital format from Thursday, August 27, 2020 to Sunday, August 30, 2020. On-site events in Cologne will not take place this year given the current situation. gamescom is jointly organized by Koelnmesse and game – the German Games Industry Association.
Related: gamescom 2020: the Largest Games Event in the World will Only Take Place Digitally this Year
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