Gamescom exec says it was never in competition with E3, has a responsibility to step up now it’s gone
“It was more announce your game at E3 and play it at Gamescom”
One of the main executives in charge of Gamescom has spoken about the extra responsibility the show faces now that E3 is gone.
In an interview with The Game Business, Felix Falk – managing director of Game, the German trade body which runs Gamescom – was asked about how the show’s relationship with E3 worked over the years.
Falk replied that Gamescom and E3 were never in direct competition with each other, and tended to complement each other instead.
“We were in a great partnership with E3 through the years, and it was never a competition,” he explained. “It was more… announce your game at E3 and play it at Gamescom.”
E3’s last physical show took place in 2019, and was followed by a digital show in 2021. After this, the fate of the event remained in limbo until organiser the ESA announced in December 2023 that E3 was officially dead and would no longer be returning.
Falk says the death of E3 was beneficial to Gamescom in some ways, due to the added responsibility it placed on the show, but also had its setbacks because game publishers had to rethink their announcement strategies.
“In some ways it was good because people expect us to be the major, global week for games with the highest visibility for everyone,” he said. “So that’s our responsibility to present a stage for the industry to fulfil this.
“This need is also a disadvantage because [Gamescom is] not so strong in the calendar. So sometimes we had to deal with the HQ teams more, as it needs to fit the global calendar for companies.”
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According to Falk this has become less of an issue over time as more companies have been returning to Gamescom to make their big announcements there.
“In the past years, it was a struggle [to get people on board] and there was a lot of discussion with some of those companies,” he explained. “But, if you see the line-up now, and who is part of Gamescom, almost everyone is there. So, we were successful in getting everyone – well almost everyone – back to Gamescom.”
Gamescom announced earlier this week that this year’s show, which takes place in Cologne, Germany on August 20-24, will be its biggest yet, featuring more than 1,500 exhibitors for the first time in its history and taking up a total of 233,000 square metres of floor space, more than ever before.
