10 learnings from gamescom 2022

gamescom is back. The world’s biggest games event had to be held as a purely online event for two years due to Covid-19. But gamescom has now once again thrilled not only millions of digital visitors from around the world, but finally also hundreds of thousands of visitors who attended on-site in Cologne. With 265,000 visitors on-site in Cologne, the limit we set because of safety was largely reached and the final number above expectations. The hybrid gamescom boosted awareness in the digital world too, with the entire gamescom show programme generating more than 200 million views worldwide – more than ever before.?

There were, however, significantly more obstacles to be overcome this year than in a normal year in order for this success to be achieved. gamescom was the first global games event to be held once again and the impacts of the pandemic were perceptible in many ways – travel restrictions, release postponements, delivery problems and price hikes. In our dynamic games industry no two years are ever the same. This is the case for events as well, not least since the pandemic. The ongoing development of gaming events as also seen at gamescom therefore is all the more important. Here are my top 10 learnings from gamescom 2022.?

1.) Events like gamescom make the games industry shine like no other?

Are events like gamescom still needed if games companies can simply produce their own formats? This question was widely discussed. And gamescom 2022 gave a clear answer – yes, events of this kind are needed! Because gamescom’s greatest strength is its diversity. No online event would ever be able to represent the full range of games, its culture and the industry. It features everything that makes the gaming culture so unique, be it indie or AAA, cosplay or esports, retro or hardware. And this has multiple effects. As an exhibitor, I am able to also reach video game players outside of my own bubble. And as a fan of ‘Alone in the Dark’, I can also come across the stand for ‘System Shock’ and vice versa.??

Gamescom also serves as a stage for our industry above and beyond the communities too. More than 270 politicians, both national and international, attended this year – a new record. No less than 70 of them were EU representatives from Brussels. They all want to gain an overview of our growing and innovative industry and at gamescom they become our supporters. General-interest media that, in some cases, do not report at all on games during the year come to gamescom to learn about the latest developments. For example, our gamescom trend ‘Healthy through games’ attracted a lot of attention and familiarised a great many people with the huge potential of the games industry’s innovative solutions who otherwise have next to nothing to do with games and who, in some cases, might be more familiar with the debates surrounding gaming disorder. With regard to the communications and regulatory challenges we as games industry are facing all over the world, gamescom creates a unique framework. One week of gamescom is often as valuable as one year of policy work and PR. After all, even the biggest sceptic can clearly see here at a glance just how much there is to games and what a positive influence they can have on our society. All the points in this first learning can only be achieved together at a joint cross-industry platform like gamescom.?

2.) Hybrid is more than a buzzword?

Only holding a games event on-site means having a great atmosphere, but having little scaling and less reach, and therefore also less international appeal. In contrast, purely online events do generate a lot of reach in theory, but they tend to lack atmosphere and depth of experience. It’s therefore important that the advantages of both worlds be combined. This sounds good, but it is more complicated than you might think because hybrid events have to be continuously further developed. And this requires a high level of investment. For example, we completely revamped our content hub ‘gamescom now’ after 2020 because the original version didn’t meet the high standards of the games industry and community. This year too, we implemented a great many improvements such as the community programme ‘gamescom epix’, which intensifies community involvement, makes the partners more visible and also makes use of the weeks prior to and following gamescom. In addition to featuring their own platforms such as ‘gamescom now’, hybrid events also have to be simultaneously held across all the online platforms where the target group is found. This multi-platform approach calls for considerable (wo)manpower, but it was such a success for us that we further expanded it in 2022 and we will do so again in the future. The future of successful gaming events can only be hybrid! With gamescom, we create a platform for our partners’ content and only when this platform is world-class can our partners truly shine when on it.?

3.) It’s all about the community?

As already explained, the reach and international appeal of on-site events are limited – the gaming community in Los Angeles or Shanghai can’t simply travel to gamescom in Cologne for a week at the drop of a hat. But they did participate even more digitally this year than in the past. Why? The on-site experience that’s conveyed is more important than you might think. Purely online events soon become interchangeable and, especially after more than two years full of digital events, nothing could beat the on-site atmosphere at gamescom. Because games are social and games are emotional. And both of these are best celebrated with a live community. The start of ‘gamescom: Opening Night Live’ alone showed that the cheering and the reactions on-site generate a very special atmosphere globally too. For this reason too, ONL was rated much more highly than the purely digital events. Our survey also showed that a clear majority of exhibitors said it was significantly easier to activate the community with a combination of on-site and digital. And no less than 95 per cent of the visitors said being able to experience the companies and games on-site too was especially important to them.?

4.) Interaction with the community is changing?

A convention where many companies can showcase their new releases coming up over the next few months can’t work for areas such as live-service games and mobile games? Wrong! But it is true to say that more forms of interaction with the community are needed than simply hands-on demos. In fact, it’s a question of offering a unique community experience, immersing people in IP worlds, maintaining direct dialogue with the community, attracting new video game players and extending all this into the digital world to a global audience. This year’s gamescom was once again a 360-degree event and, this year in particular, many companies knew how to make creative use of these opportunities. Examples here include the heavy metal concert for ‘Metal: Hellsinger’ held in the event arena of Level Infinite by Tencent, the presentation of BMW Mini x Pokémon in the merchandise area or the meeting of developers and the community at Ubisoft in the entertainment area. Traditional hands on will remain important, but we will experience many more forms of interaction with the community in the future. Once again at this gamescom, we saw that the companies that creatively put together unique experiences for the community are guaranteed to generate attention and buzz!?

5.) New players on the field?

There were 1,100 exhibitors at gamescom 2022 – just 50 short of the record figure in 2019. Their composition was different this year, though. Many of the traditional, well-known brands that have been partners to gamescom for many years were there, such as Microsoft, Ubisoft, Bandai Namco, SEGA, 2K, Embracer with Plaion and THQ Nordic, and ultimately also Sony, who engaged with a broader on-site consumer experience. But there was additionally a whole host of new exhibitors, in particular from China and South Korea. These included Tencent with Level Infinite, who even had one of the biggest stands, as well as Krafton, miHoYo, Pico or TikTok. As challenging as the two purely digital years were, they did allow entirely new partnerships to be established at gamescom that are now making their presence felt on-site too and are adding new diversity of the event.?

6.) Games are global – so are events?

gamescom 2022 was once again a global event. The two digital years further reinforced the importance of this internationality. The proportion of foreign exhibitors was higher than ever at 75 per cent and the proportion of foreign trade visitors was higher than ever too. At the same time, the digital spectator numbers increased across all the markets over the past two years and in particular in 2022, with above-average increases in North America, Brazil and China. This trend will continue to gather pace in the future because the global diversity of games can only be adequately reflected if the event is truly global too.?

7.) Indie is key?

Indie games have always been a major gamescom highlight. This is why we have been producing ‘gamescom: Awesome Indies’ as a show dedicated to indies since 2019. But this year in particular once again showed that indie games have long since become a key area for us as an industry and therefore also for successful events – there was so much for the visitors to discover in the largest indie area ever seen at gamescom that a single day was not nearly enough time. There were titles they had never heard of at every turn. And best of all, one of the developers was usually right there to talk to about the title. This is an unforgettable experience and many gamescom visitors have discovered their new hidden gem here. This makes indie games a key pillar of games events.?

8.) Non-endemic exhibitors are here to stay?

Games are such a phenomenon these days that they radiate to all other areas and are becoming a trendsetter within pop culture and far beyond too. More and more companies are catching on to this and the new exhibitors at gamescom 2022 consequently came not only directly from the field of gaming, but also from non-endemic sectors. Porsche and BMW Mini attended gamescom for the first time, for example. And companies such as McDonald's, Ford and the European Space Agency likewise used gamescom to showcase themselves to the community. After all, it has long since become one of the most interesting target groups. It is especially important to us that we don’t allow just any company to participate in gamescom, but that the exhibitors offer the visitors real added value and that the focus is always on games. If non-endemics know how to truly credibly and sustainably incorporate games into their world, they become part of the games culture and the community will celebrate them at events like gamescom too. This development ties in with our brand relaunch, which was revealed at gamescom 2022 – entertaining and diverse, but also a little more mature. Gamescom needs to be the platform for its partners, while it takes a slight step back out of the limelight as a global brand, allowing others to shine. And like games themselves, this also makes gamescom more compatible with new partners and new worlds.?

9.) Still an open question: how to make business events hybrid?

Although the non-trade visitors don’t even notice the business side of things due to the separate schedules and locations, this still represents a key pillar of gamescom. devcom had a record number of visitors, both on-site and digitally. The number of trade visitors from abroad at gamescom remained stable, even though visitors from a number of countries were missing entirely due to the current situation. This illustrates the eagerness with which people have been awaiting personal meetings on-site. Here too, though, hybrid solutions are the future, even if, in my opinion, no event appears to have found the perfect solution just yet. The path we are pursuing is to bring the trade visitors to gamescom, gamescom asia and devcom together as a community. Because the bigger the community, the greater the opportunities for everyone. Which is why we launched gamescom biz this year. Over the next few years, we will use this digital platform to further improve on-site visits, create matchmaking and networking services, facilitate digital participation and provide content. This will make gamescom biz a port of call for the community throughout the year. And as we search for the solution for the future, we have taken an important step with our hybrid dovetailing and expansion.?

10.) Think bigger

Spider-Man isn’t the only one who knows that ‘with great power comes great responsibility’. Events such as gamescom more than highlight the major cultural, economic and technological significance of games, but therefore have to also demonstrate involvement in overarching areas. It is not only an obligation on the part of companies and associations, but also on the part of events, to use the impact of games, a leading medium of this century, for good. We at gamescom further increased our involvement this year and launched the platform ‘gamescom cares’. This showcases not only our social responsibility projects, but also our partners’ events and campaigns at gamescom. To give an example, we launched a new sustainability initiative called ‘gamescom goes green’. This made gamescom one of the first global events to feature such a comprehensive concept and to be 100 per cent climate neutral at its core, inviting all visitors and partners to join in – which many of them did. Other projects are featured too, such as aid for children in Ukraine, our safe space policy with connected independent partners on-site for personal consultation, educational projects and more. We as the games industry and our communities feel deeply about these issues, which is why these projects need to be part of an event like gamescom too.?

These are our 10 learnings that may also be of interest to other events following a post-Covid-19 reboot. Am I right or actually wrong on these points? I look forward to your opinions and to discussing this with you: [email protected] ?