After two purely digital years, Gamescom 2022 finally started again on site in Cologne. Overall, the organizers Koelnmesse and game - the German Games Industry Association draw a positive conclusion despite the particular challenges in the restart year: According to the organizers, around 265.000 visitors from over 100 countries streamed into the Gamescom halls. In addition, millions of people around the world followed the digital program.
By Saturday evening alone, more than 130 million views were counted, 12 million of which were attributable to the big opening show Gamescom: Opening Night Live. This means that Gamescom remains the largest games event in the world despite the reduced ticket contingent due to the corona pandemic. Around 1.100 exhibitors from 53 countries presented themselves across the entire site. At 75 percent, even more exhibitors came from abroad than usual. More than 25.000 trade visitors came to Gamescom, and at 50 percent the foreign share was the same as in 2019. The level of anticipation worldwide was made clear on Twitter, for example: just 10 minutes after From the start of the Gamescom opening show: Opening Night Live, Gamescom was already number 1 in global Twitter trends. The digital community adventure Gamescom EPIX, in which more than 355.000 quests had already been solved by Sunday noon alone, had been delighting fans for weeks before Gamescom.
Gamescom back in Cologne
Gerald Böse, CEO of Koelnmesse: "The many partners and the entire Gamescom team fought hard during this restart to ensure that Gamescom 2022 can finally take place in the Cologne exhibition halls again. Neither the trade fair industry in general nor Koelnmesse in particular have an easy path behind them. And yet, together with all the exhibitors, we managed to get hundreds of thousands of people on site and millions of people worldwide enthusiastic about Gamescom. I am particularly pleased that so many visitors and exhibitors from abroad came to Cologne to celebrate their passion for games together - this year Gamescom is more international than ever. All in all, this is a clear signal from Cologne to the whole world that Germany is back as a trade fair location.”
Felix Falk, Managing Director of game – Association of the German Games Industry: “Gamescom is finally back. Despite the special challenges for everyone involved this year, you could feel the unique atmosphere everywhere from day 1. After more than two years with exclusively digital events, the joy of real meetings in the industry and community was huge. Overall, Gamescom 2022 exceeded our expectations: With this on-site comeback together with our further expanded digital offering, we are optimally positioned for the successful hybrid future of Gamescom.”
A variety of offers once again underlined Gamescom's claim to be a 360-degree event. Among other things, the new Gamescom biz platform, which brings together the B2B community of Gamescom, Gamescom Asia and devcom, got off to a very successful start. Since the start on August 8th, over 33.000 messages have been sent between trade visitors to the various Gamescom events.Kosmos exchanged – the platform is still open for networking. The Gamescom city festival also celebrated a comeback this year: a total of over 100.000 people attended the concerts on the stages at Rudolfplatz and Hohenzollernring.
The 14th edition of the Gamescom congress also inspired on Thursday, August 25th, with a wide range of topics and strong speakers. After two digital editions, the congress took place with around 800 visitors on site in Cologne. At the same time, more than 140.000 users followed the event in the live stream, more than ever before. Around 90 experts from Germany and abroad impressively presented the potential for education, science, business and culture as well as our social interaction in games in over 40 program items. The Gamescom congress thus underlined its position as Europe's leading conference on the potential of games.
And the date for the coming year is already set: Gamescom 2023 runs from August 23rd to 27th. It will open on August 22, 2023 with Gamescom: Opening Night Live.
Games awards: The Gamescom Awards 2022
The winners of the Gamescom awards 2022 have been announced. The Gamescom awards were presented in 20 categories as part of Gamescom: Opening Night Live, moderated by Geoff Keighley, and as part of the Gamescom Studio.
The jury of the Gamescom award is unanimous: The big winner of Gamescom 2022 is called "Lies of P". The jury awarded Souls-like, based on the Pinocchio story, Best Action Adventure Game and Best Role Playing Game as well as in the Most Wanted Sony PlayStation Game platform category. Rhythm shooter Metal: Hellsinger won Most Wanted PC Game and Best Action Game awards. Daedalic Entertainment from Hamburg can be happy about the awards for their title "Inkulinati" as Best Indie Game and Most Original Game. PLAION received the award for the best lineup at Gamescom 2022.
The Gamescom Awards honor the most anticipated games presented at Gamescom. The winners of the at a glance:
Most Wanted Microsoft Xbox Game: The Last Case of Benedict Fox, Rogue Games
Most Wanted Nintendo Switch Game: Tin Hearts, Wired Productions
Most Wanted PC Game: Metal: Hellsinger, Funcom
Most Wanted Sony PlayStation Game: Read about P, Neowiz
Best Action Adventure Game: Read about P, Neowiz
Best Action Games: Metal: Hellsinger, Funcom
Best Family Games: Paper Trail, New Fangled Games
Best Indie Games: Inculinati, Daedalic Entertainment
Best Multiplayer Games: Warhammer 40.000: Darktide, Fatshark
Best ongoing game: Sea of Thieves, Microsoft
Best Role Playing Games: Read about P, Neowiz
Best Sports Games: AEW: Fight Forever, THQ Nordic
Best Strategy/Simulation Game: IXION, Kalypso Media
Most Original Game: Inculinati, Daedalic Entertainment
Best booth: Bandai Namco Entertainment, Hall 7
Best trailers: Hogwarts Legacy, Warner Bros. Games
Gamescom goes green award: ukie
Best lineup: PLAION
With the "Heart of Gaming" award, the Gamescom awards jury also honored the solidarity of the global games industry with Ukraine: Whether it's big campaigns in games that raised millions of euros in donations for the Ukrainian population, or quick ones Help for game developers from their colleagues from all over the world: The international games industry has quickly and decisively shown its solidarity with Ukraine in a variety of ways.
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